'This is a book which has understood the age . . . and, a surprisingly rare virtue, loves and sympathizes with its dashing, dazzling spirit . . . the most brilliant intellectual moment in European history . . . has inspired a brilliant, lucid and admirable book'
Philip Hensher, Observer 'Where once "the Enlightenment" served as shorthand for rigid self-regulation, Porter's Enlightened Britons display a delightful appetite for fun . . . simply superb'
Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman