The paintings and engravings of William Hogarth, the subject of this biography, have always been popular, but outside art history little is known about his life. He moved in the worlds of theatre, literature, journalism and politics, and found subjects for his work over the whole gamut of 18th-century London, from street scenes to drawing rooms, and from churches to gambling halls and prisons. Hogarth was made wealthy by his engravings for ''The Harlot's Progress'', but remained highly critical of the growing gulf between the luxurious lives of the ruling elite and the wretched poverty of the masses. Swift described him as a ''pleasant rogue'', and he numbered the likes of Pope and Horace Walpole among his friends.