Decency and Disorder: The Age of Cant 1789-1837 is Ben Wilson's dazzling new account of the colourful and outrageous period before the Victorians - the age of Jane Austen and Byron.

Brilliant young historian Ben Wilson explores a time when licentious Britain tried to straighten out its moral code, ridding itself of its boisterous pastimes, plain-speaking and drunkenness - raising uncomfortable but fascinating parallels with our own age. Decency and Disorder is about the generation who grew up during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, and some of its most exciting figures.