The Regency Aristocracy lived through one of the most romantic and turbulent ages in British history, an era that spanned the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, that witnessed unprecedented industrial progress, artistic accomplishment, and violent social unrest and - paradoxically - the most sparkling social scene English high society has ever enjoyed.

Under the influence of the excessively fat, loose-moraled Prince of Wales, the Regency became the very apex of British decadence, an era of lavish parties, ferocious gossip, relentless bed hopping, and notorious gambling that set a standard for elegance and vulgarity.

An Elegant Madness is Venetia Murray's captivating social history of the glittering circle of rakes and dandies, ladies and courtesans, pugilists and patrons who peopled this age of glorious paradox. They are extraordinary figures, from Beau Brummel, the Regency's supreme dandy - whose toilette was so excessive that the most privileged members of society were invited to watch him dress - to the courtesan Harriette Wilson, whose list of lovers reads like the Social Register, and who gets all the best lines.

She also evokes the tempestuous times: when Stephenson invented the first locomotive; the Luddites wrecked the weaving machines that put them out of work; Telford and Macadam laid more than a thousand miles of hard road; and twenty years of war with France set a backdrop of scarlet coats and lost sons.