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Introduced from Holland after the Glorious Revolution, gin was meant to provide an economic boost for England’s corn farmers. But instead gin-drinking reached epidemic proportions in the slums of London, where it was sold from shops and market stalls, from basements, even from barrows in the streets.
Early eighteenth-century London was a violent and insecure town. Reformers soon blamed ‘Madam Geneva’ for everything from social decay to rising crime and the collapse of families. Eight major acts were passed in an attempt to control it. When prohibition was – unsuccessfully - introduced in 1736 it was greeted with popular riots and the explosion of a bomb in Westminster Hall. The arguments about gin drew in writers such as Daniel Defoe and Henry Fielding, and the campaign for reform reached its climax with the unforgettable image of Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’.
This is the story of Madam Geneva’s rise and fall. Gin-drinkers and sellers, politicians and distillers all add their voices to Patrick Dillon’s vivid account of London’s first drug craze, which takes us from the corridors of power to the cornfields of Norfolk, from the pulpits of reformers to the tenements of St Giles in the Fields.
book reviews
- Andrew Marr
Excellent - Frank Kermode, The Guardian
Patrick Dillon has researched the history of the 18th-century gin craze in admirable detail... serious history - Jenny Uglow, Sunday Times
A crisp, fast-paced account … Dillon paints a vivid picture of hard-drinking London, high on spirits and speculation … a fascinating tale, ringing with authentic voices - Giles Milton
Marvellously vivid... colourful - Daily Telegraph
Marvellous tales ... as crowded with sensational incident as an 18th-century newspaper ... With its manic tempo, Dillon’s prose embodies the relentless energy of the time ... He has, too, a gift for simplifying complex issues - Daily Express
Terrific... [an] astonishing book
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