This is a story that appeared in my research for the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum to celebrate the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade back in 2007. The bare bones of the story are that Samuel Gist was an orphan from Bristol who was educated at one of the city’s charity schools … Continue reading
Posted in July 2018 …
FROLICKSOME WOMEN & TROUBLESOME WIVES: Wife Selling in England
This seems to be the book that makes most people prick up their ears when I mention the title. Which is great, because it is an amazing story, full of humour and surprises. It also provides a lot of challenges to the notion that women were powerless. When trawling through old newspapers some years ago … Continue reading
MR BRIDGES’ ENLIGHTENMENT MACHINE: Forty Years on Tour in Georgian Britain
This is a book which began from my research into the rebuilding of Bristol Bridge. Not the famous one built by I K Brunel, but the city’s namesake in the centre of the city which is so busy with traffic that many people don’t even notice it. It was rebuilt against much local apathy and … Continue reading
The Books are Written!
Hello lovely readers! I apologise yet again for my long silence, but it has been productive. I have now cleared away most of my research books and notes so I am no longer at risk of breaking my neck every time I move around my workroom. I have completed my three books which will be … Continue reading