Top ten books on 18th-century London's perils

Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published in 2000 to huge acclaim. Her new novel, Ace, King, Knave, is set in Georgian London.

For the Guardian, McCann came up with a top ten list of books on 18th-century London's perils, including:

Wedlock by Wendy Moore: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match

Mary Bowes, an ancestress of our present Queen, spent years being tortured by her psychopathic husband. The story isn't entirely London-based but I couldn't resist including this book, revealing as it does how inequality before the law made marriage itself a peril for many women. Mary's story, as dramatic as any novel, inspired Thackeray's Barry Lyndon.

Read about the other books on the list.

The Page 99 Test: Wendy Moore's Wedlock.

--Marshal Zeringue