Book description
Led by the larger-than-life Erasmus Darwin, the Lunar Society of
Birmingham were a group of eighteenth-century amateur experimenters
who met monthly on the Monday night nearest to the full moon. Echoing
to the thud of pistons and the wheeze of snorting engines, Jenny
Uglow's vivid and swarming group portrait brings to life the
inventors, artisans and tycoons who shaped and fired the modern world.
Here's just a few of the many great reviews for The Lunar Men: 'An
exhilarating book, filled with wonders . . . Jenny Uglow is the most
perfect historian imaginable.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times 'An
irresistible book, rich as a Christmas pudding in its detail. Uglow is
the perfect guide, lucid, intelligent, sympathetic and wise. A
wonderful subject has found its perfect historian.' Spectator 'A
constant delight . . . Beautifully illustrated with many plates and
diagrams, The Lunar Men lays bare the forces that prepared the way for
the modern world.' John Carey, Sunday Times 'I loved them, every one,
from the vagaries of Dr Erasmus Darwin, who listed boredom and
credulity along with scabies as human afflictions, to Josiah
Wedgwood's dismissal of a chic sculptor's rococo models as 'the head
of a drowned puppy'. Uglow, uniquely, can do things, thoughts and
well-rounded people in the round. Nobody else writes so perceptively
about the power of friendship. Great stuff.' Guardian
Jenny Uglow grew up in Cumbria and now works in publishing. Her books
include prize-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William
Hogarth. The Lunar Men, published in 2002, was described by Richard
Holmes as 'an extraordinarily gripping account', while her most recent
biography, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, won the National
Arts Writers Award for 2007. She lives in Canterbury.
