Whilst Adrian Teal’s The Gin Lane Gazette is a strange and unlikely proposition it is by no means an unwelcome one. This book marks Teal’s first authorial folly into the world of the eighteenth century, having previously made his name as a caricaturist for the national press (his work appearing in such papers as The Times, the Daily Mail and The Scotsman). In The Gin Lane Gazette Teal presents us with a fictional satirical newspaper detailing ‘devilish scandal and oddities from the darkest recesses of Georgian England.’

What is perhaps most surprising when considering Teal’s background is that the emphasis in this book is placed heavily on the news rather than the illustrations. The attention to detail in this respect is astonishing, and visually it is a real treat for anyone who has ever trawled Eighteenth-Century Collections Online or The Burney Newspaper Archive. Not only will you find familiar typesets and formatting, but the writing style and headlines are also knowingly recreated. There are even finer details to be found, which are consistently startling in their authenticity (see the price at the bottom of each page, or the occasional advertisements placed by various quacks and hacks). It is sure to give anyone with prior knowledge of the eighteenth-century periodical a giddy sense of excitement to see all of this carried out so thoroughly. Fascinatingly, this book is not just imagining itself to be The Gin Lane Gazette, but a bound book edition compiled in 1801 which is looking back at some of the highlights of an extensive print run that has spanned the last 50 years. This is Teal’s answer to the 1712 edition of The Spectator. In Nathaniel Crowquill we even have an invented editorial persona, who clearly shares DNA with the likes of Isaac Bickerstaff, Mr Spectator and Caleb Danvers. The book claims to be a ‘compendium of true stories’ and the sheer wealth of stories on offer suggests an admirable breath of research. But are we to believe Crowquill and take the truth claims presented throughout on face value? Where does extensive research meet imaginative invention? That this book even prompts the reader to ask such questions demonstrates the extent to which Teal understands and replicates the eighteenth-century newspaper; a product of a time where highly dubious ‘true accounts’ were commonplace and the boundaries between printed truth and fiction had never been closer.

However, whilst the newspaper is a an admirable replication of its eighteenth-century equivalents, the illustrations are not only subordinate to the text but are for the most part surprisingly contemporary (certain pages bear a stronger likeness to a Private Eye annual than they do to the glossy prints found in Vic Gatrell’s City of Laughter). But this is entirely the point: Teal’s whole project is geared towards highlighting the unmistakable parallels between then and now; a connection he makes explicit when referring to the gazette as an ‘18th-century tabloid’. The identifiable (and consistently hilarious) illustrations make this connection for the non-specialist reader, providing them with a gateway to what is covertly in actual fact the main event here: the newspaper itself.

This is at once an in-joke heavy tome for the eighteenth-century enthusiast and a coffee-table curiosity for any casual reader. In appealing to each of these audiences Teal risks missing both, which raises a question familiar to anyone who has spent any time working on eighteenth-century periodicals: who exactly is the intended readership here? It is in answering this question that the book transcends the genre of light entertainment and approaches the realm of experimental archaeology. Teal has published this book with a company called ‘Unbound’. In order to publish with this group you need to find a certain number or readers who are willing to pledge their support and buy the finished product. Essentially, the book has been made using a subscription list; exactly as its eighteenth-century equivalent would have been. What’s more, the list is printed in the book’s back-matter, with Teal’s usual attention to detail rendering it beautifully authentic. This book is an absolute pleasure, and the spirit of the thing is tremendously of the eighteenth century.