When did celebrity culture begin? In the Regency period, when people hungered for news of the illegitimate actress who became a duchess and the richest woman in England; and the hard-drinking Regency buck who horse-whipped anyone who criticised his terrible novels.

Peter James Bowman is an independent scholar and translator living in Ely. He studied Modern Languages at Oxford University and completed a PhD in German at Cambridge University. He has published many periodical articles on literary subjects, and among the writers he has translated are Theodor Fontane, Stefan Zweig and Johanna Spyri. His first book, The Fortune Hunter: A German Prince in Regency England appeared in English and German. His second, The Real Persuasion, was published by Amberley Press in July 2017.