Enfilade

From Icon Books:

Alice Loxton, Uproar! Scandal and Satire in Georgian London (London: Icon Books, 2023), 416 pages, ISBN: ‎978-1785789540, £25.

London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power.

Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from the Prince Regent to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Their prints and illustrations deconstruct the political and social landscape with surreal and razor-sharp wit, as the three men vie with each other to create the most iconic images of the day.

UPROAR! fizzes with energy on every page. Alice Loxton writes with verve and energy, never failing to convince in her thesis that Gillray and his gang profoundly altered British humour, setting the stage for everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Private Eye and Spitting Image today. This is a book that will cause readers to reappraise everything they think they know about genteel Georgian London, and see it for what it was—a time of UPROAR!

Alice Loxton is a 27-year-old historian and the lead female presenter at History Hit TV, where she regularly co-presents documentaries with Dan Snow. She is also a well-loved face of the History Hit YouTube channel, and shares her passion for history with over a million followers on TikTok and Instagram. Follow her at @history_alice.