Seabrook, Kim How to Survive in Georgian Britain

The Georgian era was unique, so different from anything that came before it, and never repeated since. What must it have been like to live there? Without social welfare and with little charity, people lived solely on their wits and the sweat of their brow. There was a street vendor on every corner, a pickpocket in every crowd, and cheap gin was plentiful to drown every conceivable sorrow. What was it like to live in a smuggler's community where criminals made the rules and enforced them arbitrarily, brutally and without restraint? How could one survive a highwayman bent on taking one's wealth, dignity and, if necessary, one's life? But Georgian Britain also experienced a great flowering of art, commerce, industry and innovation. It was a time of great opportunity, if one had the means to seize it. Despite all its harsh realities, the Georgian era is also famous for its elegance and sophistication, for Josiah Wedgwood's ceramics, Thomas Chippendale's furniture, Capability Brown's landscaped gardens, the elegance of Georgian balls, Jane Austen's romantic and moving novels, but also for the ostentatious excesses of the Prince Regent and the sharp pen of the satirists. Let this book be your guide to the past and learn first-hand what moved people, what was whispered in the taverns and shouted in the streets. It was a time of excess, but also of great achievements, a time of change that transformed Britain forever.