Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.5 William Cavendish, 4th Duke of DevonshirePrime Minister: 1756-1757 (7 months)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Duke of Newcastle Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ 'PM on the Pan' Take Aways Chatsworth House: Devonshire inherited this gigantic stately home in Derbyshire and he stayed there regularly. It was only one of his residences, mark you.

Let me introduce myself. My name’s James Boswell. I'm from the Eighteenth century and, though I say it myself, I’m a pretty big deal for scholars, writers and readers. If you're one of those people who study my life and writings, or if you've simply read one of the many biographies that have been written about me (don't believe everything they tell you!), then here's a test to see how much you remember.

I took a photo of my family recently, a quick snap on my mobile phone after lunch, and there in the background...YES! YOU GUESSED IT: The Eighteenth century, right there, waiting for someone to notice. We were in Auchtermuchty, we'd stuffed our faces at The Boar's Head, and were saying our Goodbyes. Or 'See you laters'. "Wait! Everyone stop there and I'll get a photo of you," I shout.

Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.4 Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of NewcastlePrime Minister: 1754-1756 & 1757-1759Political faction: Whig 'PM on the Pan' Take Aways Menorca: The Mediterranean island of Menorca, of great strategic importance to Britain, was lost to the French in 1756. The British navy's Admiral Byng was blamed, Newcastle turned his back on him and joined the criticism which led to him being executed by firing squad.

Robert Burns is Scotland's national bard, yet who among us can understand his poetry? It's a reasonable question to ask since it’s Burns Day today. And also because Scots (and Gaelic) is now, through the Scottish Languages Act 2025, given official recognition by the Scottish Government. Yet another reason to pose the question is that I hadn’t much of a clue of what Burns was saying when I was reading through a book of his poetry recently.

Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.3 Henry PelhamPrime Minister: 1743-1754 (10 years + 192 days)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington Click to read Overview of 'PMs on the Pan' 'PM on the Pan' Take Aways Broad Bottom Ministry: Pelham's administration is commonly referred to as the Broad Bottom Ministry after he brought some Tories into his Whig-led administration, a clever, and necessary, political manoeuvre to force George II to give up his preference for the powerful…

On New Year's eve my parents-in-law came over to our place for lunch. When they were leaving and making their way to the door, passing one of our two bookcases, my wife's dad said over his shoulder, "Where d'you get all the books?""Bought them. Second hand. Over the past five years," I replied, offering too much detail.He poked one of the books in line with its neighbours and then joined his wife leaving the room.

Back in 1976 I was going into my last year at primary school and our teacher introduced us to the American Bicentennial: 200 years since the American Declaration of Independence. Here I am in 2026, half a century later, reflecting back on how little I knew or how poorly I understood the whole American independence event. It's only since I've been reading books about Eighteenth century history that I realise I had made so many assumptions, skipped over so much detail and never questioned the childish stories I created in my head back when I was 9 years old.

Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.2 Spencer Compton, Earl of WilmingtonPrime Minister: 1742-1743 (1 year + 137 days)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Sir Robert Walpole Click to read Overview of 'PMs on the Pan' 'PM on the Pan' Take Aways Forgettable: Earl of Wilmington became 'Prime Minister' aged 68. There was an expectation he could have taken over from Walpole years earlier, but Walpole was such a powerful political operator that never happened until 1742.

In his brilliant poem To a Haggis, Scots poet Robert Burns introduces us to the family of puddins, of which the haggis is the greatest, the Chieftain. With confidence it rules over all others, including painch, tripe and thairm - all parts of the digestive tract of cattle, sheep and pigs. Let it be known! Its opening verse goes like this:

I'm a bald man, have been since I saw a reflection of myself, aged 28, in a shop window in High Wycombe and had a barber shave it all off the next day. I'm fine with it (ughhh!), but it would be nice to have a Barnet*. If I was to pick one from the Eighteenth century (come on, I’d never wear a wig from the Seventeenth and a Nineteenth century hairdo?

Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.1 Sir Robert WalpolePrime Minister: 1721-1742Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland Click to read Overview of 'PMs on the Pan' 'PM on the Pan' Take Aways First British Prime Minister: Back in the Eighteenth century being called Prime Minister was a slur and in 1741, Walpole is reported to have declared: "I unequivocally deny that I am sole and prime minister." The title Prime Minister did not officially exist until well into the Nineteenth century.

I gave up making New Year Resolutions some years back because like most people I never stuck to them and often never even got started. I think for 2026, I'll try a technique used by the young James Boswell, author of the great Life of Samuel Johnson (in short: To Do lists and a Big Plan). My resolution for 2026 will be this: at the end of the day create a plan (a set of resolutions) to be completed the next day.

Today, Genius Fan kicks off the PMs on the Pan series, looking at those politicians who led the government of Eighteenth century Britain: the Prime Ministers. See them, one by one, sitting on the toilet every Monday starting 5 January, 2026. But why put them on the pan (for 'pan' read toilet) - so cruel? Cruel maybe, but us Brits have a long tradition of satirising leaders, criticising them with humour and ridicule.

As much as I love my parents-in-law (ahem, of course I do) if I had the chance to select ANY guests for my Christmas dinner, you know a 'fantasy Christmas dinner', they wouldn’t be on the list. Let me tell you who I would invite. And of course, they're all from the 18th century. Genius Fan: Well, I’m the Genius Fan, it's my party - I have to do the dishes - so I’m at the top of the table.

The coming year, 2026, is a big year to celebrate things that happened in 1776. That is, it's a big year for 250th anniversaries, and I'm going to highlight four big ones. If you read history then it's likely you'll know these - they're the ones everyone talks about. Here at Genius Fan I'll be breaking down these events in my own way, throwing in some literary history, some biography and some visits to see places that feature in these people's lives.

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. An excellent take away of this blog post is that you should make it a resolution for 2026 to read her novel, Pride and Prejudice. It's her most famous (you know, Mr Darcy and all that) and was published in 1813...I know, I know, that's the Nineteenth century. Boo, hiss, blows raspberry.

Sketching faces to illustrate Genius Fan stories is a core part of the fun in this project for me. It can take a long time to get a likeness, and sometimes I have to go ahead and publish when I know the sketch isn't quite right and could be improved. I decide on the story I'm going to tell, then work out the illustration to accompany it and at the same time search out a suitable portrait on the internet.

We went for lunch in Glasgow recently and I made a secret plan (secret from my wife) to park up in the Merchant City and walk to the nearby St Andrew's in the Square church. I knew it was from here that Italian Vincenzo Lunardi, one of the new breed of balloonists or 'aeronauts', made one of a handful of Scottish balloon flights.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication here in Britain of James Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763. It hit the bookshops on Monday 4 December 1950 and was an instant bestseller in UK and the USA. Readers loved it, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and sold across both sides of the Atlantic. Here's my list of six extra ways to enjoy Boswell's London Journal.

In 1748, at the age of seven, James Boswell was introduced to a character that would become one of first role models: The Spectator, author of highly popular essays about people and society in London in the early years of the Eighteenth century. So when Boswell managed to wangle from his father an 8 month education break in London, between 1762 and 1763, the young Scot daydreamed of being like The Spectator, moving amongst the London throng, observing, meeting, charming, commenting.

If one is going to celebrate the 75th birthday of Boswell's London Journal, then one should jolly well do so with a first edition. That was my thinking a few months ago, but I've already got a few copies and shelf space is running low...so another volume? Yes, shuttup! Of course, another volume. So, I lurked online for a few days, found a suitable copy, put in my order and it arrived a few days ago.

Some months ago I discovered there was a collection of books from the Eighteenth century tucked away in the library at Lanark. I made arrangements to view it and spent two hours handling and leafing through books that had been collected more than 270 years ago. This was the library of William Smellie (1697-1763) known, at the end of his life, as the Master of British Midwifery.

There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a 'must have' in their home. This is William Smellie's library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half...for leisure? Two hours from now I'll leave the library and dash into the street to move my car before a traffic warden writes me a parking ticket.

When one first sees William Smellie's personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves...it's a little overwhelming. It's a lot of books. Yes, but it's dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott's personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That's huge and almost unreal, especially since it's inaccessible. But Smellie's collection you can handle. Librarian Elena Focardi helped select 20 or so volumes and together we snaked our way back to the Reference reading room, placed the books onto a set of tables and there, away from that formidable edifice of row upon row of same-coloured book spines, I was able to sit and make my way into Smellie's books and his life.