» The Bookseller's Wife

Putting the Temple of the Muses back on the map

The Temple of the Muses was probably the largest single shop in 18th Century England. James Lackington’s trade card boasted it was “the finest shop in the world”. Arguably, Josiah Wedgwood’s intimate London showroom was more luxurious, showcasing his ceramics as if they were works of art, and admired by his elite clientele, including royalty….
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Written on April 1, 2026 at 6:21 pm, by Jane Davis

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Categories: Blog, Homepage, In-depth
Tags: 18th Century book trade, 18th Century London, 46 Chiswell Street, Allen & Co, Artillery Ground, Blue Plaque, E Beresford Chancellor, Elizabeth Caslon, English Heritage, Finsbury Pavement, Finsbury Place South, Finsbury Square, George Dance, Georgian London, Horwood's folding map, James Lackington, James Lackington's Memoirs, John Tallis, Joseph Jackson, Josiah Wedgwood, Lackington, Lackington Street, Listed buildings, London Squares, Merton, Moorfields, Mrs Burney, Richard Horwood, Samuel Johnson, Sir John Soames, Spring House, Tallis's London Street Views, The Bookseller's Wife, The Chiswell Street Chronicles, The Finsbury Estate, The HIstory of the Squares of London, The Northern Starr, The Temple of the Muses, Whitbread & Company, William Caslon

A woman of five and twenty

Based on a true story, The Bookseller’s Wife tells the story of Dorcas Turton, the great grand-daughter of the Honourable Sir John Turton, Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the King’s Bench. Dorcas’s mother was so proud of her lineage that she kept her maiden name in the only way a woman in the…
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Written on March 13, 2024 at 2:26 pm, by Jane Davis

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Categories: Blog
Tags: Education of women in eighteenth century england, Historical Fiction, James Lackington's Memoirs, Mary Wollstonecraft, Old Maid, The Bookseller's Wife, The Governess by Sarah Fielding

The Bookseller’s Wife

I took a small research trip last week to the ancient church of St Mary’s in Merton. Small, because it’s only a ten-minute walk from my mother’s house. As a child, I took ballet lessons in the parish hall, but I rarely ventured inside the church, which dates from the tenth century. My intention was…
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Written on September 1, 2022 at 12:04 pm, by Jane Davis

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Categories: Blog
Tags: 46 Chiswell Street, Benefits of reading, circulating libraries, Dorcas Turton, Eighteenth Century, Finsbury Square, Gravestones, James Lackington, Merton, Mrs Lackington, Nancy Lackington, Small Profits do Great Things, Spring House, St Mary's Merton, The Bookseller's Wife, The first book token?, The Temple of the Muses