Lord Byron wrote in 1821 that the prime motivator in late Georgian England was insincere talk, high minded nonsense, overstrained
verbiage or modish theory.For example, Dr Solomon invented ailments in order to sell his patented medicines, religious
reformers were exposed surpressing the pleasures of the poor whilst ignoring the sins of the rich. This insincerity was the reaction to Lord Byron''s 1819 Don Juan - ladies blushed at its very mention, yet everyone seemed to have read it! Byron was driven into exile by
moralising critics. There followed an epic struggle between reformers and their critics on how to improve the nation''s moral, a lead in to the formalised Victorian age with its evangelical view of public life. Moral failure was thought to lead to poverty. The relentless march towards respectibility came from within as well as from outside influences on the working classes.This is an engaging read highlighting both the energy and hypocrisy of the entire era.