Writing on the Wall

Graffiti, Rebellion and the Making of Eighteenth-Century Britain

By: Madeleine Pelling

Narrated by: Madeleine Pelling

What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can – if you know where to look.

A brilliant new cultural history of the long 18th-century, Writing on the Wall is told through the marks its citizens left behind, bringing into focus lost voices from the highest to the lowest in society. From the centre of London to the islands of the Caribbean, Pelling goes in search of graffiti, evidence of how ordinary people experienced the world-changing events that defined their lives – from political prisoners to sex workers, homesick sailors, Romantic poets and the artisans of the industrial revolution.

Here are lives, loves, triumphs and failures, scratched into the walls of prisons and latrines, chalked up on doors and etched into windows. The names of their creators may be lost to history, but together they tell the real story of Britain's most rebellious and transformative century.

©2024 Madeleine Pelling (P)2024 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'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.' (The Times)

'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.' (Jacqueline Riding, author of Hogarth: A Life in Progress)

'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.' (Flora Fraser, author of Pretty Young Rebel)

'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.' (Hannah Grieg, historian and consultant on Bridgerton and The Favourite)