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Genius Neil Sedaka Should Call on the Eighteenth Century
One of my all time favourite people is US singer Neil Sedaka. He just died aged 86 and listening to his songs it occurred to me he was a musical genius. Therefore I would like to tell him to look up my Eighteenth century acquaintances when he arrives. Click. Read.
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William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister Almost on the Pan
William Pitt the Elder was a great Parliamentarian, but not such a good Prime Minister. He was a great war leader, a great orator in Parliament and father of the great Eighteenth century Prime Minister William Pit the Younger. Click to read about his time in office.
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Happy Birthday to Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’
On 9 March 2026 a bunch of folk will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Wealth of Nations. The book, written by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, was published in 1776. The book led to its author being labelled the father of modern economics. Come on, Read!!
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PM Rockingham’s Unique Contribution to Modern Politics
Britain’s eighth Prime Minster, the Marquess of Rockingham, made an historic contribution to politics during his term as PM. Britain became the first nation in the world to develop this system, which he evolved along with his friend, the Irishman and philosopher Edmund Burke. Read this article, please.
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Benn’s Sixpenny Library Explodes with Knowledge
Want an entertaining and learned history book exploding with detail, written between the Wars? Oh, please, everybody wants that. Try Benn’s Sixpenny Library. There are 252 titles in the series. My copy’s about Eighteenth century Prime Ministers. Go get one. After you read this post. Cho!
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Glasgow’s Eighteenth Century Tobacco Merchant’s House
I found myself in Glasgow the other day with a few mins on my hands before my train….What do I do? Visit the Eighteenth century Tobacco Merchant’s House, of course. It’s just a minute walk from where Hollywood likes to film disaster scenes for blockbuster movies. Read on.
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Prime Minister Grenville Sowed the Seed of American Independence
Grenville is remembered as the man who introduced the Stamp Act to the American colonies setting in train events that led to independence. He was from a hugely political family in Buckinghamshire, William Pitt was his brother-in-law and he prosecuted the ‘folk hero’ John Wilkes. Fascinating Prime Minister. Read on.
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Edward Gibbon’s Genius Moment on 15 October 1764
All great things have a moment of conception, a single point in time when the light comes on and an idea is born. I call this a Genius Moment. Edward Gibbon had one, resulting in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Read on, Macduff!
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Genius Fan Celebrates Its First Birthday Today!
Today, Genius Fan celebrates its 1st birthday. I’m really pleased that it’s reached this far. It started off as a way to force myself to sketch by setting the challenge of drawing two scenes each week as a way of improving my illustration skills. And the idea was to post…
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Earl of Bute, First Tory and First Scots Prime Minister
He may only have been in office for 318 days, but just about everybody hated our 7th Prime Minster, the Earl of Bute…Scotsman and Tory. Hate the man, but don’t hate his legs. Bute was the Charles Atlas of his day…from the waist down, maybe. Read on…
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250 Years since Gibbon’s Masterpiece The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
On Tuesday 17 February it will be the 250th anniversary of a masterpiece in scholarship and literature, a book, or rather a work in six volumes, which many will know, but only a few have read. Of course…you all knew! It’s Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,…
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Prime Minister Newcastle and Global Supremacy in 1759
Britain’s 4th and 6th Prime Minister, Newcastle returned to the top job in 1757 and just two years later, along with William Pitt the Elder, engineered the 1759 ‘annus mirabilis,’ in which victories against the French launched Britain’s global supremacy. Read. Now. That’s an order!
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Cookin’ Burns’ Puddin’ in the Twenty First Century
This post is confessional. It’s like a diary entry, rather than a post about the Eighteenth century, but since it’s about the haggis and Burns Night (Rabbie Burns being an Eighteenth century Scottish character) I felt I could, nay, should, reveal how I ate my haggis on Burns Night 2026.…
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Duke of Devonshire, A Prime Minister of Many Pans
The 4th Duke of Devonshire became Prime Minister, Britain’s fifth, from 1756 to 1757. He owned the gigantic stately home Chatsworth House – the one used as Darcy’s Pemberley pile in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. How many ‘pans’ at Chatsworth? Probably many, probably a favourite. Read on!
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I’m James Boswell. How well do you know me?
Let me introduce myself: my name’s James Boswell. I’m from the Eighteenth century and, though I say it myself, I’m a pretty big deal for scholars, writers and readers. But how much do you know about the people I met? Take my quiz and test yourself…
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Auchtermuchty in 1732 – The Greatest Century is Everywhere
I took a photo of my family recently, a quick snap on my mobile phone after lunch, and there in the background…YES! YOU GUESSED IT: The Eighteenth century, right there, waiting for someone to notice. We were in Auchtermuchty, we’d stuffed our faces at The Boar’s Head, and were saying…
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Duke of Newcastle Lost an Island, then Resigned
Britain’s 4th Prime Minister, The 1st Duke of Newcastle, followed his brother into the top job, but had to resign after just 2 years after the navy lost the strategic Mediterranean island of Menorca to the French. His nickname was Hubble Bubble. I dare you to click and read more…
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Can You Understand Robert Burns’ Poetry?
Robert Burns is Scotland’s national bard, yet who understands his poetry? I daydreamed not even Capt Kirk and his Starship Enterprise crew have the gadgets to translate – it’s that difficult. Only scholars and language enthusiasts can read Burns poetry, I reckon. Does Burns’ Scots language still survive? Read on.
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Strong and Stable Prime Minister, Henry Pelham
Henry Pelham was Britain’s 3rd Prime Minister, from 1743-1754. He formed the Broad Bottom Ministry by bringing some Tories into his Whig-led administration. This forced George II to give up his preference for the powerful John Carteret, giveing Pelham control. He’s an interesting fellow. Read this post. That’s an order.
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How Many of Your Books Have You Read?
The parents-in-law came for dinner on Hogmanay and my wife’s father pointed at one of our bookcases and asked: “Have you read all of these books?” That’s the eternal power of the father-in-law…to question, but secretly critique. How does one respond? Read the post.
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8 Facts About American Independence We Never Learned
At primary school in Scotland in 1976 our teacher introduced us to the American Bicentennial: 200 years since the American Declaration of Independence. It’s only now, aged 60, that I’m correcting my pre-teen comprehension of that momentous event. Read this post, you’ll learn stuff you never knew.
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The Earl of Wilmington is Britain’s Forgotten PM
Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.2 Spencer Compton, Earl of WilmingtonPrime Minister: 1742-1743 (1 year + 137 days)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Sir Robert Walpole[Life: 1674 (DoB unknown) – 2 July, 1743] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my PMs on…
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Robert Burns and his Poem – To a Haggis
In his brilliant poem To a Haggis, Scots poet Robert Burns introduces us to the family of puddins, of which the haggis is the greatest, the Chieftain. With confidence it rules over all others, including painch, tripe and thairm – all parts of the digestive tract of cattle, sheep and…
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Recognise Any of These Eighteenth Century Wigs?
I’m a bald man, have been since I saw a reflection of myself, aged 28, in a shop window in High Wycombe and had a barber shave it all off the next day. I’m fine with it (ughhh!), but it would be nice to have a Barnet*. If I was…
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Robert Walpole – Britain’s First Prime Minister
Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.1 Sir Robert WalpolePrime Minister: 1721-1742Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland[Life: 26 August, 1676 – 18 March, 1745] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my PMs on the Pan series of posts1. First…
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New Year Resolutions – James Boswell Style
I gave up making New Year Resolutions some years back because like most people I never stuck to them and often never even got started. I think for 2026, I’ll try a technique used by the young James Boswell, author of the great Life of Samuel Johnson (in short: To…
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Coming Soon: Prime Ministers on the Pan!
Here’s a great way to learn about the Prime Ministers of Eighteenth Century Britain – observe them on the lavatory ‘making stool’. This is tame stuff compared to the real satirical sketches that were circulating during this golden age of satire in Great Britain.
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Who’s On Your Fantasy Xmas Dinner Guest List?
As much as I love my parents-in-law (ahem, of course I do) if I had the chance to select ANY guests for my Christmas dinner, you know a ‘fantasy Christmas dinner’, they wouldn’t be on the list. Let me tell you who I would invite. And of course, they’re all…
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Genius Fan’s Four Big Anniversaries for 2026
The coming year, 2026, is a big year to celebrate things that happened in 1776. That is, it’s a big year for 250th anniversaries, and I’m going to highlight four big ones. If you read history then it’s likely you’ll know these – they’re the ones everyone talks about. Here…
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Jane Austen, Eighteenth Century Author
Today, 16 December, is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. An excellent take away of this blog post is that you should make it a resolution for 2026 to read her novel, Pride and Prejudice. It’s her most famous (you know, Mr Darcy and all that) and…
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Eighteenth Century Faces Sketched by Genius Fan
Sketching faces to illustrate Genius Fan stories is a core part of the fun in this project for me. It can take a long time to get a likeness, and sometimes I have to go ahead and publish when I know the sketch isn’t quite right and could be improved.…
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Italian Balloonist Visits Glasgow 240 Years Ago
We went for lunch in Glasgow recently and I made a secret plan (secret from my wife) to park up in the Merchant City and walk to the nearby St Andrew’s in the Square church. I knew it was from here that Italian Vincenzo Lunardi, one of the new breed…
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6 Ways to Experience Boswell’s London Journal
Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication here in Britain of James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763. It hit the bookshops on Monday 4 December 1950 and was an instant bestseller in UK and the USA. Readers loved it, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and sold across both…
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London Spectators: Addison, Steele & Boswell
In 1748, at the age of seven, James Boswell was introduced to a character that would become one of his first role models: The Spectator, author of highly popular essays about people and society in London in the early years of the Eighteenth century. So when Boswell managed to wangle…
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Finally, I Bought a First Edition of Boswell’s London Journal
If one is going to celebrate the 75th birthday of Boswell’s London Journal, then one should jolly well do so with a first edition. That was my thinking a few months ago, but I’ve already got a few copies and shelf space is running low…so another volume? Yes, shuttup! Of…
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William Smellie’s Legacy – Beyond his Bookcase
Some months ago I discovered there was a collection of books from the Eighteenth century tucked away in the library at Lanark. I made arrangements to view it and spent two hours handling and leafing through books that had been collected more than 270 years ago. This is the library…
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Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue
There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a ‘must have’ in their home. This is William Smellie’s library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half…for leisure? Two…
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Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables
When one first sees William Smellie’s personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves…it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a lot of books. Yes, but it’s dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott’s personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That’s huge and almost unreal,…
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William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection
Keys in hand, librarian Elena Focardi makes her way to the locked door protecting the precious and valuable books at Lanark Library. I’ve come to see a book collection that’s 275 years old – owned by the town’s famous Eighteenth century son, William Smellie. He bequeathed his book collection, after…
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Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie
The book collection of Eighteenth century doctor William Smellie lies behind a locked door one might mistake for a janitor’s closet. You walk up the stairs, across the lobby, through one room, through another room, to an inauspicious, but secure entrance, beyond which is a temperature and humidity-controlled room, conditions…
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Boswell’s London Journal: Friends, Women & Johnson
Quote: “The London Journal 1762-1763…is a unique publishing event: the appearance for the first time of a major work by one of the most famous English* authors more than a century and a half after his death.” (p.xiii, Publishers’ Note, London Journal 1762-1763, Ed. FA Pottle, 1950) * Note: Boswell…
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Happy 75th Birthday to Boswell’s London Journal
Happy Birthday to James Boswell’s “London Journal, 1762-63” – it’s 75 years old next month. Hurrah!! QUOTE: “The Eighteenth century in this one volume of the journal is expressed more patently than in nearly all the other contemporary letter-writers and fiction-makers of the period put together. And the artistry! Make…
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Sher’s Mighty Book about Books Leads the Way
There are a number of topics I want to write about in the Genius Fan blog, and while I was out dog walking this evening I thought to myself, ‘If I get run over and killed by a bus I’ll regret not having made the time to sketch and write…
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When a Book is a Cake with ‘Sublime Dumpiness’
‘Sublime Dumpiness’ is an aesthetic quality embodied in, among other things, pies, dogs, grandmothers…and books. It’s kind of rare, and you may never have seen it. You’ll know it when you’re confronted with it…as I did on Friday past, when my wife presented me with one of my favourite books…
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Revealing the Boswell-Johnson Pilgrims
The earliest account I’ve found of someone following in the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson’s great tour of Scotland in 1773 was that of the great Johnson scholar, George Birkbeck Hill (1835-1903). It’s called Footsteps of Dr Johnson (Scotland), it was published in 1890 and it’s a great big book…
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Lost Correspondence is a ‘Mountain of Rubies’
Nothing’s hidden or lost anymore. Back in 1975 though, before broadband, smartphones and the World Wide Web put everything at our fingertips, one could still believe there were exciting discoveries yet to be made. That was the case among literary scholars who speculated about the existence of letters exchanged between…
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Samuel Pepys Makes it to the Eighteenth Century
If you’ve newly discovered this little site then you may not know that I’m an Eighteenth century nut. I believe it’s the greatest century. Better than the Twentieth, better than the Sixteenth, better than the Ninth. It’s very satisfying to me to discover that a high profile person or event…
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I Wish My Most-Used Books Were in Hardback
I own two books which through constant use and consultation are becoming increasingly raggedy, with spines I anticipate will split in 2026 accompanied by the sad ungluing of pages. In short: collapse. The books? To The Hebrides: Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour…
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The Payoff in Decorating Upheaval is Bookcase Tidying
My wife doesn’t appreciate the pleasure that goes with tidying and reorganising our (my) bookcases, so when the topic of redecorating the living room pops up…I know it’s a day of tidying, (putting all books into boxes) furniture moving, cleaning and prep, followed by a day of painting, then six…
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Boswell’s is Big, But Voltaire’s is Voluminous
Appendix 5 to James Caudle’s excellent article entitled Editing James Boswell, 1924-2010: Pasts, Presents, Futures shows the estimated number of volumes one should expect to find across an edition of a range of historical papers. He’s focused on the Scottish writer and lawyer James Boswell (1740-1795), and his appendix (not…
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