Author: Alan Mumford
ISBN: 0-9711966-1-3
Publication date: October 2003
No of Pages: approx. 124
Year of Publication: 2003

Burke's Peerage is the definitive reference book on the British Aristocracy showing the genealogy of individuals and their involvement in social, cultural and political life.

Burke's is pleased to present a very different view of Lords and Ladies, through cartoons published over the last two hundred and fifty years. The cartoons lend an often critical view of the personalities and events. The earliest cartoon, by William Hogarth, shows the last Lord to be hanged for treason, because of his support for the Jacobite cause in 1745.

A number of chapters cover the activities of the House of Lords and its reform, and many major personalities involved in political life. The Earl of Beaconsfield (Disraeli), Asquith, Lloyd George, the Earl of Stockton (Macmillan), Lord Home and Baroness Thatcher appear.

Ladies have a chapter to themselves, including a trio of Liberals – Margot Asquith, Violet Bonham Carter, Megan Lloyd George – and their Liberal Democrat successor Shirley Williams.

However it is not all politics - there are cartoons of personalities from sport (Cowdrey), military life (Kitchener), theatre (Olivier) and press (Beaverbrook). The most contentious cartoons relate to scandals in which Lords have been involved, and not just Lord Archer! There seem to have been fewer cartoons of a smaller number of scandals involving ladies! Different stages in the opening of stately homes at Longleat and Woburn are also in evidence.

The book is introduced by The Rt Hon Lord Baker of Dorking, well known as a collector and author in his field. John Jensen, one of our most experienced cartoonists writes from the cartoonist's point of view.