Tonson, the most important publisher in London, Robert Walpole and a shoal of peers. The unifying factor was Whiggery. In 1700, Whigs, as opposed to Tories, stood for constitutional government against royal absolutism; they were pro-parliament, progressive and hungry for cultural change. But beyond that, the Kit-Cats were friends. The group at the club's core had known each other since their schooldays. Field's highly intelligent book is about politics and culture, but it is also about male bonding and networking and how it works. The house rules of the Kit-Cat Club, such as there were, focused on the ceremonial consumption of pies, camaraderie, drinking and excluding women, who could only appear as the subject of sentimental toasts. The club's egalitarian principles could not extend to including women, because in 1700 the two sexes occupied separate social spaces. To the Kit-Cats, who were mostly bachelors, men were admirable as 'wits', women as 'beauties', with no possible overlap. Thus, talented Whig women such as Susanna Centlivre stood outside the group's nexus of patronage." --Jane Stevenson, The Observer, Sunday July 27, 2008.