A book about one of the London clubs, published to mark its 250th anniversary, might be regarded as of extremely limited public appeal, designed only for the enjoyment of its members, 800 of whom have subscribed more than 900 copies (one blenches to think why members might want more than one copy). But Brooks’s, halfway up St James’s Street, has always felt that its history deserves wider public interest, partly because of its association with the life and gambling of Charles James Fox and partly because it has been so central to the formation of the 19th-century Whig party. (This book includes the rather amazing statistic that, during the Melbourne administration in the 1830s, nearly half the members were sitting MPs and every member of the cabinet belonged to Brooks’s).
The willingness of the club to be open about its history and to encourage its study has been helped by the fact that its members are expected to be literate as compared to those of White’s, opposite. (Max Egremont comments in his essay on the club’s betting books that ‘Even today, the idea of a library at White’s is laughable, whereas the one at Brooks’s is cherished’).
Indeed, in amongst the essays which are probably aimed at Brooks’s members, including detailed discussion of the history of its wine consumption by Hugh Johnson, an unexpectedly detailed account by Thomas Heneage of what vegetables were eaten in the late 18th century, and a description of the pleasures of back-gammon by Lucius Falkland, there is plenty to interest a wider readership.
Leslie Mitchell, the biographer of Charles James Fox, provides an examination of the ways in which Fox — his politics, his personality and his friends — formed the essential ethos of the original club, addicted as it was to gambling and reform.
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