London Lights

Building on his well received biographies of Turner and Faraday, James Hamilton brings us London from Nelson's death at Waterloo in 1815 to the Great Exhibition of 1851. The London Lights are the men, and women, who, freed from the threat of invasion from France, turned the capital into the scientific, artistic and intellectual centre of the world.

Reflecting the period, the writing is fast, detailed and entertaining, even a little gossipy. For example the description of the Prince Regent as "an extravagant royal playboy given little responsibility but having palatial ambitions and large trousers."

A book not to be read in company (unless you really want to annoy) as one is continually wants to say "Did you know that" ...for instance, where various parts of the now demolished Carlton House can now be found.

This could have been very dry, but here we have fascinating details of meeting places, institutions, private lives not known at the time, and wonders at how often fame and fortune depend on a combination of factors to put the right people in the right place at the right time, like Nash in the rebuilding of central London and Smirke at the British Museum

Loved the Epilogue, detailing what happened to the characters to which we have been introduced.

A good rich read.