Dan Cruikshank, author of The Secret History of Georgian London will give a talk on researching and writing the book at the Oxford Literary Festival on the 26th March 2010.
From the website:
Drawing extensively on contemporary memoirs, court cases and the evidence of art and architecture, architectural historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank explains how Georgian London was shaped by the sex industry.
His approach is ambitiously wide-ranging, and examines both the smart new streets that sprang up in Marylebone and the squalid alleys around Charing Cross.
He also discusses the impact of prostitution on artists such as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds, as he argues that prostitution shaped 18th-century London and helped determine its future development.
