Category: People
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Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole Gave Britain Political Stability
You’ve landed on Genius Fan’s first Genius Faces post. Welcome. What is the Genius Faces post category about? This series is all about portraits of people from the Eighteenth century (and people from other centuries relevant to that period). Most history blogs show the same portraits, clipped from elsewhere on…
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 2
Look up! When you step off the street and into the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh you’ll see above you a wonderful parade of figures from Scotland’s history. There are 155 full length portraits on the face of the first floor balcony. Above the entrance this…
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Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Visits to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Most people have LIVING friends, with skin and bones and blood in their veins. (Pffff, weird!) I’ve got historical friends — people I’ve never met, who I spend time with…in my head. Their portraits hang in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, and I chat with them. Click. Read.
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 1
Look out for the head and shoulders portrait of James Boswell in the Great Frieze (Hole in 1897-1898) above the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. When I visit I always go straight there…I see him, and then I relax. Do it and remember how awesome he was.
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Discovering a Robert Adam Fireplace and maybe David Hume
The one about the Eighteenth century fireplace designed by Scotsman Robert Adam, sitting quietly in a north-facing drawing room of the oldest house in Queens Street in Edinburgh’s New Town. Philosopher and all round good egg David Hume may have stood ‘right there’ in the 1770s. Makes me giddy. Read.
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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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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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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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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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18th Century British Prime Ministers on the Pan: The Complete List (1721–1801)
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.…