The Much-Lamented Death Of Madam Geneva: The Eighteenth Century Gin Craze

Patrick Dillon

Editions

Review

‘Geneva’ was the name by which the new distilled spirits were first known in the late seventeenth century.  Although subsequently better known as gin, it was as Madam Geneva that the substance was first vilified and defended by people like Defoe in the contemporary press.  And it is this name that Patrick Dillon uses, anthropomorphising her as the central character in this spirited history which does so much to illuminate some murky aspects of London and the eighteenth century.  Dillon does not draw attention to the parallels with the modern drugs industry – in terms of big business, and the destructive effects on users – but these are implicit, and give great force to this compelling narrative. - review by Johnny de Falbe

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