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Sat 04 Apr 2007When Britain stopped being funHistory:Ben Wilson is one of the rising stars of historical writing. His first book, The Laughter of Triumph (2005), received considerable critical acclaim, which was particularly impressive for a debut author's 464-page take on a "forgotten hero", 19th- century satirist William Hone. In Decency and Disorder, Wilson has produced a historical tome with wide potential appeal. Wilson aims to re-examine the social situation of the period immediately before Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. In so doing, he sheds light on how the ostentatious moralising that came to define the Victorian era was in fact in evidence in the years just before her reign began, a reaction to the previous generation's relative social freedom. Wilson's approach is effective, well- structured and entertaining. He writes energetically, drawing upon a cast of characters from across society, opening with William Palfrey, who as a recent Cambridge graduate protested the infringement on his liberty to swim in public by parading stark naked down the banks of a canal. Palfrey, along with a grandmother chastened by her grandchildren for her bad language, and London historian Francis Place, a judgmental sort who was himself the son of a tavern-keeper, recur throughout the book as classic examples of the hypocrisy of the era.