General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Madeleine Pelling

Madeleine Pelling (Madeleine Lucy Pelling) is a British cultural historian, author, and broadcaster who specializes in eighteenth-century Britain, known especially for her 2024 book Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain and as co-host of the History Hit podcast After Dark.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Doctorate	PhD in History of Art, University of York, completed in 2018 with the department's doctoral scholarship³
Thesis	Bluestocking Collecting, Craft and Conversation in the Duchess of Portland's Museum, c. 1770–1786, supervised by Richard Johns, awarded December 2018⁴^•⁵
Debut book	Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Profile, March 2024), a Book of the Year for The Sunday Times, BBC History, and History Today¹^•²
Second book	Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment (Profile, 2026), on the eighteenth century's obsession with fraud and performative truth¹
Broadcasting	Co-host, with Dr Anthony Delaney, of History Hit's After Dark podcast; UK ARIA nominations for 'Best New Presenter' and 'Listener's Choice', and True Crime Awards 'Rookie of the Year' win¹
Fellowships	Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, John Rylands Research Institute (Manchester), IASH (Edinburgh), and, per her publisher, Yale, Queen Mary University of London, and the Royal Archives³^•²
Professional roles	Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; member of the editorial board of History, the Historical Association's journal¹^•³

Education and doctoral research

Pelling completed her PhD in 2018 at the University of York's History of Art Department, where she held the departmental doctoral scholarship.³ Her thesis, submitted under the title Bluestocking Collecting, Craft and Conversation in the Duchess of Portland's Museum, c. 1770–1786 and awarded in December 2018, was supervised by Richard Johns.⁴^•⁵

The thesis examines female authorship, friendship, and knowledge-making in late eighteenth-century collecting, taking as its focus the collection of antiquities and natural history specimens assembled by Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, duchess of Portland (1715–1785), at Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire and at the Privy Gardens, Whitehall. Against historians' characterization of the Portland Museum as a chaotic collection famous mainly for its dispersal at auction in 1786, Pelling reconstructs the museum before the sale and recovers a community of female contributors whose labor she describes as the 'museum-salon'.⁴ Parts of the thesis appeared in the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Journal 18, and Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal.⁴

Academic career and research

Following her doctorate, Pelling took up postdoctoral positions at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Research Institute, and at the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities; additionally, her publisher credits her with fellowships at Yale, Queen Mary University of London, and the Royal Archives.³^•² Her research addresses material and visual culture in the eighteenth century through four sites: the collected and found object, the manuscript, the inscribed surface, and the cinematic screen. She has been preparing a monograph, The Duchess's Museum: Collecting, Craft and Conversation.³

Her journal publications include an article in Women's History Review on eighteenth-century women's manuscript-making and collecting around Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots (volume 29, issue 7, 2020, pages 1085–1113),⁶ an article on Portrait of a Lady on Fire in Humanities (2021),⁷ and, with Lilian Tabois, the introduction to the 2021 History special issue 'Women and the Making of History' (volume 106, issue 372, pages 518–533).⁸ She is a member of the editorial board of History, the journal of the Historical Association, and has served as Communications Officer for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.³

Writing on the Wall

Pelling's debut book, Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain, was published by Profile Books in March 2024 as a 320-page hardback.²^•⁹ It is a cultural history of the long eighteenth century (roughly 1688–1837) told through marks left by ordinary people, scratched into walls, doors, windows, and other surfaces, from political prisoners and sex workers to homesick sailors, Romantic poets, and industrial artisans, ranging from central London to the islands of the Caribbean.²^•¹⁰ The Sunday Times, BBC History, and History Today each named it a Book of the Year for 2024.¹

Among the cases the book examines is that of James Doe, a potter who died by suicide near Bristol in 1797 and whose notes, written on the walls of his lodging, allowed later readers to reconstruct his story.¹¹^•⁹ Speaking at the Off the Shelf festival in 2024, Pelling compared graffiti's capacity to inform and misinform with social media, and estimated that for every example she found, roughly twenty more had been lost.⁹

Hoax and later work

Her second book, Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment (Profile, 2026), examines the eighteenth century's obsession with fraud and performative truth through three women and their hoaxes: Fanny Lynes, Mary Bateman, and Mary Willcocks (also known as Princess Caraboo), asking how much of the deception surrounding them was of their own making and why the public was transfixed.¹

Broadcasting

Pelling co-hosts After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal on History Hit with Dr Anthony Delaney, a podcast covering folklore, superstition, and true crime; the show has received multiple award nominations and wins, and its guests have included Dr Tracy Borman, Professor Ronald Hutton, and Siobhán McSweeney.¹^•¹² Her television work includes presenting the documentaries The Brontës: Death at the Parsonage (History Hit, 2025), Versailles: Science and Splendour (History Hit with the Science Museum, 2025), and Burke and Hare and The King's Curse (History Hit, 2024), and appearing as an expert contributor on programs including Mayhem! Secret Lives of the Georgian Kings (Sky, 2025), Titanic in Colour (Channel 4, 2024), Royal Autopsy (Sky, 2024), Queens That Changed The World (Channel 4, 2023), and Who Do You Think You Are? Australia (Warner Bros, 2023).¹ She has worked with Channel 4, Sky Arts, Warner Bros, and the BBC, and her broadcast recognition includes UK ARIA Award nominations as 'Best New Presenter' and 'Listener's Choice' and a 'Rookie of the Year' win at the True Crime Awards.¹ She also writes the Substack newsletter Madeleine Pelling, with essays, reading notes, and behind-the-scenes dispatches.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Visual arts and design › Art history, criticism, and scholarship

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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