Book reveals the famous harlots who were ‘the Kardashians’ of the Georgian era

Today, women are influenced by A-list actresses and reality TV stars, the same famous faces who grace social media feeds and covers of magazines. 

But in Georgian Britain, women had a rather more unlikely source of inspiration: the harlots, courtesans and mistresses who appeared on the arms of the most powerful men in society. 

British author Mike Rendell, who has written more than a dozen books about the era, delves into the lives of these women in his new book, Georgian Harlots and Whores: Fame, Fashion & Fortune in the late Eighteenth Century, noting their similarity to modern-day megastars like the Kardashians. 

‘I am not for one moment doubting the morals of the Kardashian family, or implying that they are successors to that other parallel universe of three centuries ago, namely…