Alice Loxton is one of the big names in history over the last few years. A University of Edinburgh graduate, she quickly amassed a major social media following sharing history and then began working for History Hit, Dan Snow’s history company. And now she is pretty regularly invited to different history, heritage, and cultural events. In 2024, she released Eighteen to great acclaim, and I was curious what the hype was about. Today I’m chatting about Eighteen by Alice Loxton and my thoughts!
Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, Alice Loxton
At eighteen, your life is full of what-ifs and why-nots. You have everything to look forward to – yet childhood is already behind you.
From a young Elizabeth Tudor facing deadly intrigue at court to a teenage Richard Burton, the rugby-obsessed son of a Welsh miner, historian Alice Loxton explores Britain’s past through the lives of eighteen figures at this crucial age.
How do you make a living in Georgian London with no arms or legs? What would you do if a world war interrupted your university studies? With plenty of wit and insight, Eighteen invites readers to join an eclectic cast of young Britons across the nation and throughout its history.
Why You Should Read This…
This is an interesting premise for a book. When it comes to history, we often hear about historical figures at the end of their life or at least in their prime- their younger years are often entirely forgotten other than to set the stage for whatever major accomplishments will follow. However, our childhood and teenage years deserve far more attention as they massively affect the rest of our lives.
When I started reading Eighteen, I didn’t realise that this was a YA book. It’s not clear from the description and it seems to be shelved in adult non-fiction, but I also could have researched it further. In any case, it is a very easy-to-read and accessible book with the audience in mind. And I think she does a great job of bringing history to a younger generation that may not be as interested and showing how very relevant it is- we all were young at one point, despite how it may seem.
I also very much appreciate the range of figures chosen for the book. We go from Bede in the eighth century to Jacques Francis in the sixteenth century to Vivienne Westwood in the twentieth and twenty-first century. It goes a long way to show that history is not solely about powerful men in the military and government (though a few of those do appear).
As an adult reading it, I did find it to be a slight disconnect- this is aimed at Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and as a Millennial, I am not the target. However, I think that Eighteen would be a fantastic book for anyone in their teens or early twenties who is interested in history!
Is Eighteen by Alice Loxton on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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