LAUGHTER OF TRIUMPH

by Ben Wilson

Satirist William Hone is the forgotten hero of the British press. In 1817 he was forced to defend himself against a censorious government, in what amounted to a show trial pitting a self-educated Fleet Street journalist against the Lord Chief Justice and a hand-picked jury

Genres: History

464 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2006

About the author

Ben Wilson was born in 1980 and educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first class degree and an MPhil in history. He is the author of three books and was named in 2005 as one of Waterstone's 25 Authors of the Future. He has consulted on scripts for various TV history progammes, and has himself appeared on TV and on national radio in the UK, Ireland and the USA. He has given lectures at Tate Britain, Cambridge and Zagreb and at book festivals in the UK including the Edinburgh Festival. He has written for the Spectator, Literary Review, Independent on Sunday, Scotsman, Men's Health, Guardian Online and GQ.
He is the author of five previous books, including What Price Liberty?, for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Sunday Times bestseller Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy.

Reviews

[Will Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but like the Prince Regent, overly padded...

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of a remarkable man who fought for the survival of a free press in the early 19th century Regency Britain.

[Maia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting about early nineteenth, late eighteenth century politics and freedom of the press and democracy. Sets the scene for 19th century political history, if you're studying that, nicely. They felt very connected to the restoration and revolution eras, really succeeds in conveying how the actors in that period saw themselves in their history. Also interesting at the start about the rare and curious book trade, as it was called, with black-letter and 15th century books being collected, and very interesting about the distribution networks: how did a newspaper get all over the British Isles? And sets the scene for understanding chapbooks, penny dreadfuls etc: reading the first few chapters would help you understand that. Badly written in a strange way: restates things 3 times, so you have to skip 2 sentences sometimes. The same information, presented twice over. (See what i did there?) It's borderline for a 4 or a 3. The ending is a bit sad, in that there is a lot of information about Hone the bookseller but little about Hone the man, so when he stopped being a bookseller he becomes barely footnotes. Worth reading if this interests you. Sort of private eye magazine for the Regency. Also sets satire in its context, which with Charlie Hebdo, the direct descendant of pornographic cartoons of the queen as political debate, is very topical.

[Chandrashekar Gangaraju · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read the author's Decency and Disorder which was really impressive I was somewhat disappointed by this book. Not for the information it contains but by the style. There is a lot of repetition in every chapter and the last chapter is again a repetition. I wasn't happy with one or two statements in the book but overall it was a great window into the past and I am very happy that I read this.