A01=Jacqueline Riding
Author_Jacqueline Riding
British history books
Category=ATD
Category=DNBF
Category=NHTB
Charlie Chaplin
drama books
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
history books
theatre
Victorian history books
Victorian London
Working-Class history
World War One
Product details
- ISBN 9781800818644
- Weight: 650g
- Dimensions: 160 x 238mm
- Publication Date: 05 Feb 2026
- Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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'HARD STREETS is a rich and emotive study of a world now lost that will leave readers stunned' Hallie Rubenhold, author of THE FIVE
Charlie Chaplin rose from the hard streets of Victorian London to become one of the most beloved comedians of all time. With his threadbare jacket, baggy trousers and puzzled expression, Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' alter ego was shaped by the city of his childhood - a place of ribald variety shows and hard drinking, radical politics and desperate poverty.
In Hard Streets, Jacqueline Riding conjures the lost world of working-class London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Weaving through Chaplin's iconic rags-to-riches story are the lives of music hall stars, political reformers and George Tinworth, a neighbour of Chaplin's mother and grandparents, who progressed from poor wheelwright to nationally renowned sculptor. Riding paints a striking portrait of a time and place where hardship was the norm, but where talent, determination and luck could bring opportunity and success.
Dr Jacqueline Riding is a historian and art historian specialising in British history and eighteenth century art. Former curator of the Palace of Westminster and Director of the Handel House Museum, her previous book Hogarth: A Life in Progress was a Sunday Times and Christie's Art Book of the Year.
