An interesting but not very deep overview of the period. Concentrates largely on some notable personalities, with some odd omissions: Byron, but not Scott or Shelley; Wellington, but not Nelson. ( )

I absolutely loved this book, but I concede that it is made for a specialist’s taste. It is an engagingly well-written history of the Regency period in England – the decade between 1810 and 1820 when George III was sunk in the throes of illness and lunacy, when his eldest son assumed the regency. For anyone who’s been a devotee of the genre known as Regency Romances, and has a historical bent, this book is a clearly-written and entertaining depiction of this most exciting period in English history. From Lord Byron’s scandalous carryings-on with aristocratic ladies to the rise of Evangelicalism, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Peterloo Massacre, this was a time of great ferment in this most important island nation. ( )