On Graffiti in Eighteenth Century Britain | A Drink with Madeleine Pelling

Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson chats with cultural historian Madeleine Pelling about how 18th-century graffiti reveals the story of real people’s lives.
In this clip, Madeleine tells us about 18th century smoke graffiti.
Madeleine Pelling is a cultural historian, author and broadcaster. She holds a PhD from the University of York and has held research fellowships at the universities of Yale, Edinburgh and Manchester. Her first book, Writing on the Wall: Graffiti, Rebellion and the Making of Eighteenth-Century Britain (Profile Books, 2024), tells the stories of immigrants, prisoners of war, debtors, sex workers and rebels in Georgian Britain through the marks they left behind, and offers a new perspective on this tumultuous period of history. Madeleine is co-host of History Hit’s After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal, a podcast that shines a light on the shadier corners of the past and which brings a rigorous historical lens to folklore and true crime. She is also a regular contributor on television programmes such as the upcoming Titanic in Colour (Channel 4), and Mayhem! Secret Lives of the Georgian Kings(2025), as well as Queens That Changed The World (Channel 4, 2023) and Who Do You Think You Are? Australia(Warner Bros, 2023). Her words appear in The Guardian, The Independent, BBC History Magazine and History Today.
This conversation was recorded as part of the Idler's weekly online event, A Drink with the Idler. The full recording is available to magazine and Academy subscribers. Visit the website to join: www.idler.co.uk/

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Love this a people's history