'An adroit, intelligent and painstaking social history ... Poor Bickerton offers us a luxurious tapestry from which everyone interested in English social history in the late-Georgian period can learn something new and surprising.' - Professor Jerry White, author of London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing

On 8 October 1833, Coroner Thomas Higgs opened an inquest into the death of John Bickerton, an elderly eccentric who, despite rumours of his wealth and high connections, had died in abject squalor, 'from the want of the common necessaries of life'.

Over the coming hours, Higgs and his jury would unpick the details of Bickerton's strange, sad story: a story that began with comparative wealth, included education at Oxford and the Inns of Court, and brought him to the attention of two sitting prime ministers, but which descended into madness, imprisonment, mockery and starvation.

Using Bickerton's life as a thread around which to weave his narrative, historian Stephen Haddelsey explores the lives of the down-and-outs and rejects of Georgian and Regency England, including debtors, criminals and the insane. For anyone fascinated by this era of balls and intrigue, of Lord Byron and mad King George, here a world altogether grittier than that to be found in the novels of Jane Austen is revealed in all its lurid detail.

A solid history looking at a popular era and uncovering the cut-throat side of living in Georgian England

About the Author
STEPHEN HADDELSEY is the author of many books on Antarctic exploration history, including Ice Captain, Born Adventurer and Icy Graves, as well as other topics. He lives in Nottinghamshire.

Reviews

'Immersive, eccentric, fascinating - I've never read anything quite like Poor Bickerton. Roving from the royal court to courtrooms, from Oxford colleges to London slums, madhouses and debtors' prison, Haddelsey charts a course through Georgian society that is as unique as it is compelling. This riches-to-rags tale never stops surprising.'

-- Dr Hannah Rose Woods, author of Rule Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain

'Exceedingly interesting, well researched and compassionate.'

-- Professor Michael Ignatieff, author of A Just Measure of Pain: Penitentiaries in the Industrial Revolution, 1780-1850

'An adroit, intelligent and painstaking social history ... Poor Bickerton offers us a luxurious tapestry from which everyone interested in English social history in the late-Georgian period can learn something new and surprising.'

-- Professor Jerry White, author of London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing



Book Information
ISBN 9781803994253
Author Stephen Haddelsey
Format Hardback
Imprint The History Press Ltd
Publisher The History Press Ltd