Principal Lecturer in English Dr John Gardner's newly published book Poetry and Popular Protest: Peterloo, Cato Street and the Queen Caroline Controversy captures a short but significant moment in British History, when population of 200 years ago expressed their disaffection - through poetry.

The book investigates the relationship between poetry and protest in the years immediately following the end of the Napoleonic wars, from 1815 to 1822. It also further examines Romantic period culture, providing new and provocative information on canonical poets such as Byron, Lamb, and Shelley alongside anonymous poets, pamphleteers, balladeers and publishing pirates, by focusing on their relationship with contemporary political events.

In a period when only 5% of the population could vote, poetry and politics became inseparable, with disparate groups of poets struggling to control the representation of the most dramatic revolutionary events of the day. Consequently, there was a shrinking of the gulf that separated 'high' literature from the literature of the streets, allowing for a glimpse at a new kind of writing that denied the possibility of literary stratification and, for this very reason, threatened the stratified society out of which it had been produced.

Peer reviews:

'A much-needed, invigorating and provocative insight into an explosive moment in literary and political history: Gardner's close readings of both lesser-known and canonical Romantic poetry shed new light on the plebeian counter-public sphere in one of its most high-profile confrontations with the unreformed Regency state. A very welcome addition to studies of Romantic print culture.' Professor Ian Haywood, Roehampton University

'This thought-provoking and fascinating study of a short moment in British political and literary history brings together writing of every kind from elite poetry to street doggerel. Through analysing all forms of print culture it brilliantly reveals how much was at stake in the years from 1819 to 1821 and how decisive - and long-lasting - was the victory of the small ruling elite over the forces of reform.'

Professor Janet Todd, University of Aberdeen and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

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