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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

From etching scratched into the earliest monuments to the spray can designs that appear on structures today, the urge to leave our mark is universal.

But in 18th century Britain, the nature of graffiti changed, both exploding in popularity and becoming much more radical in nature. In her new book

writing on the wall, Madeline Pelling explores this shift by looking at often moving stories

that have been carried through history by the smallest of scratches and notes.

Madeline was speaking to Eleanor Evans and please be aware that this episode contains some

descriptions of violence and suicide. We are talking today about what we now know as graffiti, people leaving

a mark on surfaces, perhaps messages or symbols, and specifically in the long 18th century,

from around the reins of William and Mary to the Georgians. I'm joined by Madeline Pelling,

and perhaps our listeners have their own ideas of graffiti, Maddie, and what this means.

Can you take us into broadly the types of mark making your book is covering? And what's happening to it in this period?

Hi, Elena. Yes. Graffiti massively changes in the 18th century. And I think really we have a very

set idea today of what graffiti is. And hopefully the book challenges that a little bit. So today our relationship

with graffiti is quite contradictory. We have on the one hand this idea of it being illegal. It's

something potentially undesirable in the urban landscape. It's something that a town council

will come and wash away or scratch off or cover up in some way.

...