Georgian Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll: Unbuttoning Bridgerton

Kate uncovers what went on betwixt the Georgian sheets: who's doing what, where, how and with whom. Along the way she’ll explore extraordinary guides to sex work in London and Edinburgh and unwrap the world of 18th century condoms, syphilis and even high profile and hidden sex clubs. All of this will help to unearth the real lives of the people stomping the streets, pubs and back alleys of these lavish Georgian cities. No stone is left unturned in the quest to reveal the real lives of Georgian society!

Dr Kate Lister navigates the astronomical impact of gin in the 18th century, who was drinking it and how they were making it (spoiler alert, it was strong, drunk in a pint sized jar and sometimes flavoured with urine!). She looks into how they tried to quell the gin craze after 50 years of gin madness in 1751 and how they promoted the obviously healthy drink of beer as an alternative! After all that booze and tobacco we follow Kate to bath for a more sobering hit of some of Jane Austen’s favourite tipple, the Pump rooms famous spa water, before exploring a group of people even Lady Whistledown herself would have loved, the diamonds of the sex work trade, the influencers of their age, the Courtesans. Finally Kate tries to figure out why everyone was so obsessed with the regency’s most famous bad boy, Lord Byron, was he really mad, bad and dangerous to know?