Writing on the Wall

'A wonderful, vibrant account' Susie Dent
'A secret history like no other' BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2024

Longlisted for the 2025 Berger Prize

What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can - if you know where to look

An aristocrat carves obscenities into a tavern window with his diamond ring. A shopkeeper's daughter sketches customers with a piece of coal. A desperate highwayman, condemned to death, scratches his initials into his prison cell door.

Writing on the Wall goes in search of the hidden voices of Britain's most rebellious and transformative era - a time when anyone in possession of a sharp point and ready surface could find their voice and immortalise their message. Through the marks made by ordinary people, scratched into walls, doors, windows and more, Madeleine Pelling brings the lost stories of the past to life in all their unguarded glory.