Genius Fan

  • Prime Minister Newcastle and Global Supremacy in 1759

    Prime Minister Newcastle and Global Supremacy in 1759

    Britain’s 4th and 6th Prime Minister, Newcastle returned to the top job in 1757 and just two years later, along with William Pitt the Elder, engineered the 1759 ‘annus mirabilis,’ in which Britain’s victories against the French launched her global supremacy. Read. Now. That’s an order!

  • Cookin’ Burns’ Puddin’ in the Twenty First Century

    Cookin’ Burns’ Puddin’ in the Twenty First Century

    This post is confessional. It’s like a diary entry, rather than a post about the Eighteenth century, but since it’s about the haggis and Burns Night (Rabbie Burns being an Eighteenth century Scottish character) I felt I could, nay, should, reveal how I ate my haggis on Burns Night 2026.…

  • Duke of Devonshire, A Prime Minister of Many Pans

    Duke of Devonshire, A Prime Minister of Many Pans

    The 4th Duke of Devonshire became Prime Minister, Britain’s fifth, from 1756 to 1757. He owned the gigantic stately home Chatsworth House – the one used as Darcy’s Pemberley pile in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. How many ‘pans’ at Chatsworth? Probably many, probably a favourite. Read on!

  • I’m James Boswell. How well do you know me?

    I’m James Boswell. How well do you know me?

    Let me introduce myself: my name’s James Boswell. I’m from the Eighteenth century and, though I say it myself, I’m a pretty big deal for scholars, writers and readers. But how much do you know about the people I met? Take my quiz and test yourself…

  • Auchtermuchty in 1732 – The Greatest Century is Everywhere

    Auchtermuchty in 1732 – The Greatest Century is Everywhere

    I took a photo of my family recently, a quick snap on my mobile phone after lunch, and there in the background…YES! YOU GUESSED IT: The Eighteenth century, right there, waiting for someone to notice. We were in Auchtermuchty, we’d stuffed our faces at The Boar’s Head, and were saying…

  • Duke of Newcastle Lost an Island, then Resigned

    Duke of Newcastle Lost an Island, then Resigned

    Britain’s 4th Prime Minister, The 1st Duke of Newcastle, followed his brother into the top job, but had to resign after just 2 years after the navy lost the strategic Mediterranean island of Menorca to the French. His nickname was Hubble Bubble. I dare you to click and read more…

  • Can You Understand Robert Burns’ Poetry?

    Can You Understand Robert Burns’ Poetry?

    Robert Burns is Scotland’s national bard, yet who understands his poetry? I daydreamed not even Capt Kirk and his Starship Enterprise crew have the gadgets to translate – it’s that difficult. Only scholars and language enthusiasts can read Burns poetry, I reckon. Does Burns’ Scots language still survive? Read on.

  • Strong and Stable Prime Minister, Henry Pelham

    Strong and Stable Prime Minister, Henry Pelham

    Henry Pelham was Britain’s 3rd Prime Minister, from 1743-1754. He formed the Broad Bottom Ministry by bringing some Tories into his Whig-led administration. This forced George II to give up his preference for the powerful John Carteret, giveing Pelham control. He’s an interesting fellow. Read this post. That’s an order.

  • How Many of Your Books Have You Read?

    How Many of Your Books Have You Read?

    The parents-in-law came for dinner on Hogmanay and my wife’s father pointed at one of our bookcases and asked: “Have you read all of these books?” That’s the eternal power of the father-in-law…to question, but secretly critique. How does one respond? Read the post.

  • 8 Facts About American Independence We Never Learned

    8 Facts About American Independence We Never Learned

    At primary school in Scotland in 1976 our teacher introduced us to the American Bicentennial: 200 years since the American Declaration of Independence. It’s only now, aged 60, that I’m correcting my pre-teen comprehension of that momentous event. Read this post, you’ll learn stuff you never knew.

  • The Earl of Wilmington is Britain’s Forgotten PM

    The Earl of Wilmington is Britain’s Forgotten PM

    Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.2 Spencer Compton, Earl of WilmingtonPrime Minister: 1742-1743 (1 year + 137 days)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Sir Robert Walpole[Life: 1674 (DoB unknown) – 2 July, 1743] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my On the…

  • Robert Burns and The Puddin’ Race

    Robert Burns and The Puddin’ Race

    In his brilliant poem To a Haggis, Scots poet Robert Burns introduces us to the family of puddins, of which the haggis is the greatest, the Chieftain. With confidence it rules over all others, including painch, tripe and thairm – all parts of the digestive tract of cattle, sheep and…

  • Recognise Any of These Eighteenth Century Wigs?

    Recognise Any of These Eighteenth Century Wigs?

    I’m a bald man, have been since I saw a reflection of myself, aged 28, in a shop window in High Wycombe and had a barber shave it all off the next day. I’m fine with it (ughhh!), but it would be nice to have a Barnet*. If I was…

  • Robert Walpole – Britain’s First Prime Minister

    Robert Walpole – Britain’s First Prime Minister

    Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.1 Sir Robert WalpolePrime Minister: 1721-1742Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland[Life: 26 August, 1676 – 18 March, 1745] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my On the Pan series of posts 1. First…

  • New Year Resolutions – James Boswell Style

    New Year Resolutions – James Boswell Style

    I gave up making New Year Resolutions some years back because like most people I never stuck to them and often never even got started. I think for 2026, I’ll try a technique used by the young James Boswell, author of the great Life of Samuel Johnson (in short: To…

  • Coming Soon: Prime Ministers on the Pan!

    Coming Soon: Prime Ministers on the Pan!

    Here’s a great way to learn about the Prime Ministers of Eighteenth Century Britain – observe them on the lavatory ‘making stool’. This is tame stuff compared to the real satirical sketches that were circulating during this golden age of satire in Great Britain.

  • Who’s On Your Fantasy Xmas Dinner Guest List?

    Who’s On Your Fantasy Xmas Dinner Guest List?

    As much as I love my parents-in-law (ahem, of course I do) if I had the chance to select ANY guests for my Christmas dinner, you know a ‘fantasy Christmas dinner’, they wouldn’t be on the list. Let me tell you who I would invite. And of course, they’re all…

  • Genius Fan’s Four Big Anniversaries for 2026

    Genius Fan’s Four Big Anniversaries for 2026

    The coming year, 2026, is a big year to celebrate things that happened in 1776. That is, it’s a big year for 250th anniversaries, and I’m going to highlight four big ones. If you read history then it’s likely you’ll know these – they’re the ones everyone talks about. Here…

  • Jane Austen, Eighteenth Century Author

    Jane Austen, Eighteenth Century Author

    Today, 16 December, is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. An excellent take away of this blog post is that you should make it a resolution for 2026 to read her novel, Pride and Prejudice. It’s her most famous (you know, Mr Darcy and all that) and…

  • Eighteenth Century Faces Sketched by Genius Fan

    Eighteenth Century Faces Sketched by Genius Fan

    Sketching faces to illustrate Genius Fan stories is a core part of the fun in this project for me. It can take a long time to get a likeness, and sometimes I have to go ahead and publish when I know the sketch isn’t quite right and could be improved.…

  • Italian Balloonist Visits Glasgow 240 Years Ago

    Italian Balloonist Visits Glasgow 240 Years Ago

    We went for lunch in Glasgow recently and I made a secret plan (secret from my wife) to park up in the Merchant City and walk to the nearby St Andrew’s in the Square church. I knew it was from here that Italian Vincenzo Lunardi, one of the new breed…

  • 6 Ways to Experience Boswell’s London Journal

    6 Ways to Experience Boswell’s London Journal

    Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication here in Britain of James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763. It hit the bookshops on Monday 4 December 1950 and was an instant bestseller in UK and the USA. Readers loved it, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and sold across both…

  • London Spectators: Addison, Steele & Boswell

    London Spectators: Addison, Steele & Boswell

    In 1748, at the age of seven, James Boswell was introduced to a character that would become one of his first role models: The Spectator, author of highly popular essays about people and society in London in the early years of the Eighteenth century. So when Boswell managed to wangle…

  • Finally, My First Edition of Boswell’s London Journal

    Finally, My First Edition of Boswell’s London Journal

    If one is going to celebrate the 75th birthday of Boswell’s London Journal, then one should jolly well do so with a first edition. That was my thinking a few months ago, but I’ve already got a few copies and shelf space is running low…so another volume? Yes, shuttup! Of…

  • William Smellie’s Legacy – Beyond his Bookcase

    William Smellie’s Legacy – Beyond his Bookcase

    Some months ago I discovered there was a collection of books from the Eighteenth century tucked away in the library at Lanark. I made arrangements to view it and spent two hours handling and leafing through books that had been collected more than 270 years ago. This is the library…

  • Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue

    Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue

    There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a ‘must have’ in their home. This is William Smellie’s library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half…for leisure? Two…

  • Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables

    Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables

    When one first sees William Smellie’s personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves…it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a lot of books. Yes, but it’s dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott’s personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That’s huge and almost unreal,…

  • William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection

    William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection

    Keys in hand, librarian Elena Focardi makes her way to the locked door protecting the precious and valuable books at Lanark Library. I’ve come to see a book collection that’s 275 years old – owned by the town’s famous Eighteenth century son, William Smellie. He bequeathed his book collection, after…

  • Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie

    Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie

    The book collection of Eighteenth century doctor William Smellie lies behind a locked door one might mistake for a janitor’s closet. You walk up the stairs, across the lobby, through one room, through another room, to an inauspicious, but secure entrance, beyond which is a temperature and humidity-controlled room, conditions…

  • Boswell’s London Journal: Friends, Women & Johnson

    Boswell’s London Journal: Friends, Women & Johnson

    Quote: “The London Journal 1762-1763…is a unique publishing event: the appearance for the first time of a major work by one of the most famous English* authors more than a century and a half after his death.” (p.xiii, Publishers’ Note, London Journal 1762-1763, Ed. FA Pottle, 1950) * Note: Boswell…

  • Happy 75th Birthday to Boswell’s London Journal

    Happy 75th Birthday to Boswell’s London Journal

    Happy Birthday to James Boswell’s “London Journal, 1762-63” – it’s 75 years old next month. Hurrah!! QUOTE: “The Eighteenth century in this one volume of the journal is expressed more patently than in nearly all the other contemporary letter-writers and fiction-makers of the period put together. And the artistry! Make…

  • Sher’s Mighty Book about Books Leads the Way

    Sher’s Mighty Book about Books Leads the Way

    There are a number of topics I want to write about in the Genius Fan blog, and while I was out dog walking this evening I thought to myself, ‘If I get run over and killed by a bus I’ll regret not having made the time to sketch and write…

  • When a Book is a Cake with ‘Sublime Dumpiness’

    When a Book is a Cake with ‘Sublime Dumpiness’

    ‘Sublime Dumpiness’ is an aesthetic quality embodied in, among other things, pies, dogs, grandmothers…and books. It’s kind of rare, and you may never have seen it. You’ll know it when you’re confronted with it…as I did on Friday past, when my wife presented me with one of my favourite books…

  • Revealing the Boswell-Johnson Pilgrims

    Revealing the Boswell-Johnson Pilgrims

    The earliest account I’ve found of someone following in the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson’s great tour of Scotland in 1773 was that of the great Johnson scholar, George Birkbeck Hill (1835-1903). It’s called Footsteps of Dr Johnson (Scotland), it was published in 1890 and it’s a great big book…

  • Lost Correspondence is a ‘Mountain of Rubies’

    Lost Correspondence is a ‘Mountain of Rubies’

    Nothing’s hidden or lost anymore. Back in 1975 though, before broadband, smartphones and the World Wide Web put everything at our fingertips, one could still believe there were exciting discoveries yet to be made. That was the case among literary scholars who speculated about the existence of letters exchanged between…

  • Samuel Pepys Makes it to the Eighteenth Century

    Samuel Pepys Makes it to the Eighteenth Century

    If you’ve newly discovered this little site then you may not know that I’m an Eighteenth century nut. I believe it’s the greatest century. Better than the Twentieth, better than the Sixteenth, better than the Ninth. It’s very satisfying to me to discover that a high profile person or event…

  • Most-Consulted Books Should be in Hardback

    Most-Consulted Books Should be in Hardback

    I own two books which through constant use and consultation are becoming increasingly raggedy, with spines I anticipate will split in 2026 accompanied by the sad ungluing of pages. In short: collapse. The books? To The Hebrides: Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour…

  • Three Days of Upheaval Just to Tidy Bookcases

    Three Days of Upheaval Just to Tidy Bookcases

    My wife doesn’t appreciate the pleasure that goes with tidying and reorganising our (my) bookcases, so when the topic of redecorating the living room pops up…I know it’s a day of tidying, (putting all books into boxes) furniture moving, cleaning and prep, followed by a day of painting, then six…

  • Boswell’s is Big, But Voltaire’s is Voluminous

    Boswell’s is Big, But Voltaire’s is Voluminous

    Appendix 5 to James Caudle’s excellent article entitled Editing James Boswell, 1924-2010: Pasts, Presents, Futures shows the estimated number of volumes one should expect to find across an edition of a range of historical papers. He’s focused on the Scottish writer and lawyer James Boswell (1740-1795), and his appendix (not…

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold! Fanny Burney

    Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold! Fanny Burney

    Novelist Fanny Burney shared a friendship with one of the Eighteenth century’s greatest writers, Samuel Johnson, and when she died in 1840, at the age of 87, the mighty Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote of his surprise that someone who mixed in the illustrious Johnson circle, so many years ago, had…

  • Quarter Past Midnight: The Book Reading Sweetspot

    Quarter Past Midnight: The Book Reading Sweetspot

    Do you know what ‘stolen time’ is? It’s minutes or hours that you shouldn’t have, but manage to ‘half inch’ (pinch) or through a cancellation it ends up in your hands. In its unexpected nature, stolen time is rich in potential. And it has boundaries, a start and a finish,…

  • Track Down Out-of-the-Way Memorials

    Track Down Out-of-the-Way Memorials

    I talk a lot about books in this Genius Fan blog, and my little library of nearly 200 volumes. But I also spend a lot of time online, fleshing out topics that I come across in books. Or elsewhere. Like the Eighteenth century military mapmaker Major-General William Roy, whose name…

  • A Most Creative Way to Commemorate Boswell

    A Most Creative Way to Commemorate Boswell

    Of all the ways Boswell has been commemorated – statue (though not in his native Scotland or his beloved London), bust, engraving, signs, plaques etc – the one on the land reclaimed from the Twentieth century’s disused Barony Colliery has to be the most creative. The mine, just a mile…

  • Crane Required to Lift Birkbeck Hill’s Book

    Crane Required to Lift Birkbeck Hill’s Book

    A big book is annoying when it doesn’t fit onto the bookcase, especially if it’s a volume one is particularly proud or fond of. This is the case with George Birkbeck Hill’s Footsteps of Dr. Johnson (Scotland). I have a copy. I had to adjust the height of one of…

  • Did the Adventurers Land in Kinghorn or Pettycur?

    Did the Adventurers Land in Kinghorn or Pettycur?

    Here’s a scenario: You have a question over a trivial event from history, say the mighty Eighteenth century. It niggles. So what can you do to get an answer? Quickest way is to 1. Search the internet (actually, most stuff from the world isn’t on the internet at all). You…

  • Staring at James Boswell’s Tankard

    Staring at James Boswell’s Tankard

    I’m always looking for new ways to get that intimate sense of history, rather than just reading an account of something in a book. Well, if you go to Dr Johnson’s House museum in Gough Square, London, you’ll see in a locked display cabinet (I’m guessing it’s all locked up)…

  • I’ve Got the Eighteenth Century Disease

    I’ve Got the Eighteenth Century Disease

    I’ve got the Eighteenth century disease. It’s not smallpox, TB or gonnorhea. It’s the one when your brain is on alert for four digit numbers beginning with 17. I was at the supermarket recently and the assistant said, “That’ll be seventeen forty five, please.” I almost didn’t hear her. My…

  • A new Assembly or Allocation of Materials

    A new Assembly or Allocation of Materials

    In my two most recent posts (On the Hunt… and A Plaque for Burns…) I made the point that it’s fun and interesting to get out of the house and use a book as a guide to track down a place that’s relevant to your favourite historical period or person.…

  • A Plaque for Burns, But Not for Boswell

    A Plaque for Burns, But Not for Boswell

    There’s no mention of the visit to the Gardenston Arms Hotel, Laurencekirk, by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson on the commemorative plaque set above the front door of the flats built upon the site of the old hotel. The two travellers visited this hotel located at the northern end of…

  • On the Hunt With a Boswell Guidebook

    On the Hunt With a Boswell Guidebook

    I’m aware that when I travel around Scotland I’m often crossing the path of my literary hero, James Boswell. The most recent example was while I was travelling north up the east coast of Scotland…something Boswell and Samuel Johnson did, but in a carriage, in 1773. I made a short…