With a keen eye for the juicy anecdote, Th-z tells the fascinating and entertaining story of the rise, decline and resurgence of London''s private members'' clubs, from the late-eighteenth century to the present day. In doing so he looks at cultural and political developments beyond the clubs, revealing how while the clubs may have been products of their city and country, they also exerted significant influence on London, Britain and places far beyond.
This is a chronicle, as informative as it is entertaining, of the ups and downs of London clubland, and how it had an impact on parts of the world far from London. It is packed with amusing anecdotes and illustrative examples of the growth of this quirky, unique institution, which grew to spread around the world. London, though, with its four hundred clubs, was always at its heart.
Th-z reveals how everything we might have thought we knew about these clubs is wrong. They may have started out as white, male, aristocrati
