136. Ink & Industry

🎙️ London's Printing Revolution & the Birth of Children's Literature | The London History PodcastJoin Hazel Baker for a fascinating journey through 1740s London, a city alive with ink, ambition, and innovation. In this episode of The London History Podcast, we uncover how a tiny chapbook, Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, helped transform childhood reading – and how a widowed woman publisher, Mary Cooper, quietly reshaped literary history from her shop on Paternoster Row.📚 Discover:The buzz of London’s book trade around St Paul’s CathedralThe Statute of Anne and how it revolutionised copyrightMary Cooper and Thomas Longman – trailblazers of modern publishingThe engraving artistry of George Bickham the YoungerWhat was inside Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book – and what was lostWhy only two copies of the book are known to surviveHow nursery rhymes travelled from street cries to storybooksThe hidden role of women in the eighteenth-century print tradeThis episode is packed with rich detail – from political tensions of the Jacobite rising to the changing face of children’s literature, and from the smells of damp paper to the sound of rhymes still sung today.🎧 Whether you are a book lover, historian, educator, or simply curious about the untold stories behind everyday culture, this episode will leave you seeing nursery rhymes – and London itself – in a whole new light.🔔 Subscribe to never miss an episode💬 Share with someone who loves history, literature, or London🌐 Find bonus content at: https://londonguidedwalks.co.uk/podcast