The First Celebrities: Five Regency Portraits

What percentage of the printed and online media is dedicated to celebrity culture today? A tricky calculation; but there is no doubt that the percentage was pretty high when mass media in the form of the popular press was first invented.

That was in the Regency period and Peter Bowman shows how, following the outrageous fame of Lord Byron, an interest in the foibles, rather than the achievements, of prominent individuals was kindled and sustained by newspapers, satirical prints and good old...