
My latest novel, To Tame the Wind, is the first I’ve set in the 18th century. It’s the prequel to my Agents of the Crown trilogy and it’s set in 1782 in London, Paris and the waters of the English Channel. I do have several scenes that take place in London: on the London quay, on the Thames and on Oxford Street. I did not wander farther afield to the poorer areas like St. Giles. But all of London in the 18th century had a stench one could not miss.
To say it did not smell very good would be an understatement.
There was no sanitation. Water was unpurified and raw sewage ran down city streets in open drains. In the air, there was the famous London fog, smoke from burning coal for heat and the general dirt of the city. And that was only the beginning. See More.