INSIGHTS Public Lectures and Blackwell's are delighted to be welcoming multi-talented historian, presenter and author, Alice Loxton to discuss her vivid, pacey and endlessly engaging, new history of Georgian Britain through the eyes of the artists who immortalised it - Uproar! Scandal, Satire and Printmakers in Georgian London. 

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.

Alice Loxton's writing fizzes with energy on every page, and never fails to convince us 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!

Biography

Alice Loxton is a history broadcaster and writer, with a passion for bringing the past to life. She has over two million followers on social media (@history_alice) where she presents short videos exploring the historic delights of Britain. She has worked with many charities and organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences. She is the lead female presenter at History Hit TV, where she regularly co-presents documentaries with Dan Snow.