The past year [2024] has been standout for popular history books, especially those that come at the subject sideways. From their titles and authors we know we’re about to get something a bit different. There was Unruly, a romp through England’s monarchs from writer-comedian David Mitchell, and A History of Britain in Ten Enemies from Terry Deary of ‘Horrible Histories’ fame. Alice Loxton’s Eighteen, A History of Britain in Eighteen Young Lives is in a similar vein. It was an instant Sunday Times bestseller in the UK, and while the target reader is the younger history fan, this not-so-young history nerd found it highly enjoyable and full of surprises.
Alice Loxton, like many of today’s popular historians, uses YouTube, TV documentaries and social media (where she has 3 million followers) to bring history to a new generation. Only 28 herself, Alice’s style is chatty, fun and engaging, and she produces lively, bite-sized history reels on TikTok and Instagram.
In writing Eighteen, Alice wanted to get an idea of the ‘ambitions, dreams, fears and regrets’ of the British eighteen-year-old over the past thousand or so years. The result is a collection of mini-biographies of youths who were significant in history in ways that might not seem immediately obvious. She examines their ‘early moments of anxiety, of vulnerability, of naivety. The rougher, grittier, messier moments of people’s lives’.
Alice begins by putting the age of eighteen in its historical context. Today, this is viewed as the turning point at which we officially become adult. However, for much of history, an eighteen-year-old would have been considered an adult for quite some time already. In medieval times, life expectancy was around 30, and boys were expected to work from the age of seven; in the 18th century, boys joined the Royal Navy at twelve. And as for women, Chaucer considered those in their thirties to be ‘winter forage’.
Alice also asks the question, was that spark that went on to make these people so successful evident in the teenage version? Was there anything in their early years – in their backstory – that hinted at greatness to come?
While some names on the list come as no surprise (Queen Elizabeth 1st, Chaucer, Nelson, Brunel) some may have you scratching your head when it comes to their historical significance (actor Richard Burton, Fionnghal Nic Dhòmhnaill (who rowed Bonnie Prince Charlie Over the sea to Skye), author and gardener Vita Sackville West). Alice shares the rationale behind her choices: ‘I am confident this is an excellent bunch. On one hand, these are people who have made a real difference, a lasting impact on the world. But they are also my personal favourites: people I’d choose to go on holiday with or have on a pub quiz team.’ I like her way of thinking.
The others on Alice’s list are: Bede (7th-century monk, author and scholar); Empress Matilda; Jacques Francis (African salvage diver in Tudor times); Jeffrey Hudson (‘court dwarf’ to the English queen Henrietta Maria); Sarah Biffin (painter born with no arms and only vestigial legs); Mary Anning (fossil collector); Elsie Inglis (doctor, suffragist); Jack Lewis (the writer CS Lewis), Rosalind Franklin (chemist) and Vivienne Westward (designer). The eighteenth youngster is ‘Rae DeDarre’ – an anagram of Dear Reader.
Alice has clearly worked hard to bring us a diverse list – there are equal numbers of men and women from a range of social backgrounds, and it includes young people who overcame physical disabilities to achieve remarkable success.
Between each chapter the reader is treated to updates on a fantasy dinner party attended by all the eighteen-year-olds. Alice imagines how, for example, the Empress Matilda, who has already been married, made an epic journey across Europe, and spent two years in charge of Italy, finds Princess Elizabeth (Tudor) intensely intellectual and ‘not the liveliest party companion’. But eventually Matilda is impressed and decides she’s ‘a woman I could do business with.’ Things turn raucous as the chapters proceed, and finally Vivienne Westward swigs the dregs of a bottle of red wine and orders them all to play spin the bottle. Who will get to kiss who?
At the back of the book are two nice little extras. The first is a list of places you can visit associated with these people, e.g. St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, where Bede spent most of his life; Southwark Cathedral, London (with a note to look out for the cathedral cat, Hodge); and Knole House (childhood home of Vita Sackville-West). Finally Alice asks a number of people, including a pop star, a stone mason, a mudlarker and a potter, what advice they’d give their eighteen-year-old selves. This from baritone and composer Roderick Williams: ‘Don’t worry, no matter how confident your peers may seem, they are all as bewildered by life as you are. Just remain open, curious and generous and you’ll be okay.’