About
I returned to Liverpool and academic life just in time to experience the cultural phenomenon that was Liverpool 08.
In 2015 I received my PhD for a thesis entitled "The Radical Experiment in Liverpool and its Influence on the Reform Movement in the Early Victorian Period". This research followed the political actions of Reformers and Radicals in Liverpool culminating in their taking control of the town council between 1835 and 1841. It then sought to show how the leading Liverpool Radical of this period, Sir Joshua Walmsley, was influenced by these events when he led a national campaign for parliamentary reform in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Although Liverpool’s “radical experiment” and the campaign for parliamentary reform were relatively short-lived, they both achieved a measure of success and reflect well on Liverpool.
Since 2016 I have been setting up and leading a new collaborative research project (Liverpool Newspaper Heritage - see Research tab) to document Liverpool’s neglected contribution to the history of newspaper production and journalism in the UK. This is another “good news” story for Liverpool and the project was inspired by the unexpected discovery during my earlier research of just how diverse, innovative and vibrant Liverpool’s newspapers and periodicals were in the nineteenth century.
RECENT AND FORTHCOMING EVENTS
September 2018
FACT VS FICTION: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE LIVERPOOL CONSTABULARY FORCE IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Article in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 167
July 2019
LEISURE AND INNOVATIVE JOURNALISM IN THE LIVERPOOL NEWSPAPER PRESS
Paper for Research Society For Victorian Periodicals Conference 'Work/Leisure, Duty/Pleasure'
August 2019
IN SEARCH OF THOMAS GREEN AND THE AUTHORS OF LIVERPOOL'S CAXTON PRESS
Article in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 168
2019/2020
THE RISE AND FALL OF DIVERSITY IN THE LIVERPOOL PRESS
Article (in editing) for Media History special issue 'Provincial Newspapers: Lessons from History'