Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain

'A wonderful, vibrant account' Susie Dent 'A secret history like no other' BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2024 Longlisted for the 2025 Berger Prize What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can - if you know where to look An aristocrat carves obscenities into a tavern window with his diamond ring. A shopkeeper's daughter sketches customers with a piece of coal. A desperate highwayman, condemned to death, scratches his initials into his prison cell door. Writing on the Wall goes in search of the hidden voices of Britain's most rebellious and transformative era - a time when anyone in possession of a sharp point and ready surface could find their voice and immortalise their message. Through the marks made by ordinary people, scratched into walls, doors, windows and more, Madeleine Pelling brings the lost stories of the past to life in all their unguarded glory.

About the Author :
Madeleine Pelling is an award-winning cultural historian, author and broadcaster, and has held research fellowships at the universities of Yale, Edinburgh and Manchester. She is the co-host of History Hit's popular After Dark podcast and is a regular contributor for TV and radio, including for Channel 4, Sky Arts, Warner Bros and the BBC. Her words appear in the Guardian, Independent, BBC History Magazine and History Today, amongst others. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Review :
Fascinating ... not only a history of graffiti, but also a history of the 18th century through lost voices of the people who lived through it. A wonderful , vibrant account of how ordinary citizens have carved , scratched , and scribbled their messages across the surfaces of our cities for centuries . It's given me a much broader idea of what is probably the most democratic form of writing we have , but which we tend to dismiss as either bad manners or subversive behaviour ... Madeleine Pelling uses it to open up the lives of people whose voices otherwise went unheard . A secret history like no other ... a fascinating dip into our ancestors' lives You've read the Austen and seen the Gainsboroughs, well this is the real Eighteenth Century in the words of those who walked the streets, worked the coal seams and clung to the topsail yards. From the ingenious starting point of a humble scratch on glass or daub on brick, Madeleine Pelling crafts a rich and complex portrait of a society in transition An erudite, dazzling and thought-provoking study of the graffiti of the period - be its creator Romantic poet or Jacobite, King Mob or Caribbean prisoner of war, Pelling teases out lost narratives with humanity and flair An extraordinary history of ordinary people. In this original and impressive study of eighteenth-century graffiti, Pelling foregrounds the protestors, prisoners, rebels and romantics who all left their unique mark on the past