Hard Streets

Emma — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

‘HARD STREETS is a rich and emotive study of a world now lost that will leave readers stunned’ Hallie Rubenhold, author of THE FIVECharlie Chaplin rose from the hard streets of Victorian London to become one of the most beloved comedians of all time. With his threadbare jacket, baggy trousers and puzzled expression, Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp’ alter ego was shaped by the city of his childhood – a place of ribald variety shows and hard drinking, radical politics and desperate poverty. In Hard Streets, Jacqueline Riding conjures the lost world of working-class London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Weaving through Chaplin’s iconic rags-to-riches story are the lives of music hall stars, political reformers and George Tinworth, a neighbour of Chaplin’s mother and grandparents, who progressed from poor wheelwright to nationally renowned sculptor. Riding paints a striking portrait of a time and place where hardship was the norm, but where talent, determination and luck could bring opportunity and success.

Hogarth

Emma — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

THE SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEARA Sunday Times Best Paperback of 2022Christie’s Best Art Books of the Year ‘Deft and richly detailed … rescues the artist from John Bull caricature’ – Michael Prodger, Sunday Times ‘Marvellous … a vivid and compelling reconstruction of the settings of Hogarth’s life and artistic achievements, and of the nature of the man’ – Professor Linda Colley, author of The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen ‘Full of richness, originality and considered humour, unafraid to shock with thrilling new insight … terrific’ – Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of V&A Stratford & Sky Arts ‘The full technicolour panorama of Georgian life laid out in a huge and passionate book’ – Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and author of Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian CourtOn a late spring night in 1732, a boisterous group of friends set out from their local pub. They are beginning a journey, a ‘peregrination’ that will take them through the gritty streets of Georgian London and along the River Thames as far as the Isle of Sheppey. And among them is an up-and-coming engraver and painter, just beginning to make a name for himself: William Hogarth.Hogarth’s vision, to a vast degree, still defines the eighteenth century. In this, the first biography for over twenty years, Jacqueline Riding brings him to vivid life, immersing us in the world he inhabited and from which he drew inspiration. At the same time, she introduces us to an artist who was far bolder and more various than we give him credit for: an ambitious self-made man, a devoted husband, a sensitive portraitist, an unmatched storyteller, philanthropist, technical innovator and author of a seminal work of art theory. Following in his own footsteps from humble beginnings to professional triumph (and occasional disaster), Hogarth illuminates the work and life of a great artist who embraced the highest principles even while charting humanity’s lowest vices.

Riding, Jacqueline – The Bell Bookshop

Hard Streets

Hogarth