A N Wilson - the Wise and Their Works

The Wise and Their Works is a lavishly illustrated in-depth celebration of the marvel that was The Great Exhibition of 1851, and the people who inspired it by renowned author and historian A.N.

Wilson.

The men who inspired the Great Exhibition of 1851 - Henry Cole, Sir Robert Peel and above all Prince Albert himself - were at the centre of an extraordinary combination of manufacturing, commercial skill and political vision which made Victorian Britain an unparalleled success story.

Wilson examines the legacy they left behind and while their loftier ambitions may not have come to pass, these enterprising men did leave behind a little known but hugely influential organization, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which created the world's first and greatest cultural quarter of South Kensington through the establishment of the great museums thereabouts and still supports industry, science and art in the UK today.