Blog
I’m delighted to share the beautiful cover for the Heiresses paperback - out in September but available to pre-order now. I thought you might be interested to know a bit about the images we used, from the portraits to the plantation scene, who the women were, and where the portraits are now… if so, read on… THE HEIRESSES: As you may know, the book tells the stories of nine…
Jane (Jenny) Leigh Perrot, nee Cholmeley Whenever Jane Austen’s links to enslavement are mentioned, it causes a furore, or if you will, a storm in a teacup sweetened by Caribbean sugar. But one story, with a lot more depth and drama has hitherto been largely overlooked: that of her aunt, Barbados heiress Jane Leigh Perrot, the wife of Mrs. Austen’s brother James Leigh Perrot. When Jane…
(Image: Lauren Walker/Truthout) When writing my new book, Heiresses, it was important to me to highlight the lives of enslaved people, because we can’t truly understand their significance without considering the human cost of their actions or inaction.Throughout the book I did my best to piece together fragments of enslaved peoples' stories. One woman’s story was so striking that I…
Lady Elizabeth Webster nee Vassall by Robert Fagan, Naples, 1793 Not long now till my new book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery, hits the shelves on 4 September, so I'm beginning to share some of the most intriguing stories from the book... beginning with this one about the strange case of a Jamaican heiress driven to fake her own daughter's death in Italy! Have you heard…
I’m delighted to announce that my new book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery, is being published on 4th September by Oneworld in the UK and 7th October by Pegasus in the US.It’s been seven years since I started this project and I can hardly believe it’s finally going to be out there!Heiresses exposes how, for almost two centuries, generations of women became…
Hello!It’s been a long time since I posted here! This is because I’ve been devoting all my energies to finishing my next book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery, which I’m delighted to tell you will be published in September by Oneworld in the UK and Pegasus in the US. In it, I tell the stories of nine women who became enslavers, married in Britain and whose…
Speaking with Astrid Madimba, co-author of It's a Continent at the Africa is Not a Country, It's a Continent panel at Gladfest 2022. Applications are now open for the new Miranda Kaufmann Black British History Scholarship at Gladstone’s Library for 2023, and you can apply from now until 31st October. The scholarship – two weeks’ all-inclusive accommodation at Gladstone’s…
sI am happy to announce that a new Miranda Kaufmann Black British History Scholarship will be available at Gladstone’s Library from 2023. The scholarship will be for research into the histories of people of African and/or Caribbean origin or descent in the United Kingdom, making connections between the local and global aspects of British History.The award is for two weeks’…
8th-century Welsh gardener John Ystumllyn (c. 1738 - 1786), also colloquially known as Jac Du or Jack Black Penrhyn Castle As I live in North Wales, I'm particularly excited that following the success of our previous events in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Preston, Huddersfield and Leicester, we will be holding the fourteenth of the What's Happening in Black British History? Workshops (WHBBHXIV), at…
I am incredibly disappointed that the MA in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London, the only taught course of its kind in the country, which only launched in 2019, is at risk of closure, as Goldsmiths has put its lecturers Christienna Fryar & Hannah Elias at risk of redundancy. Their actions are in direct opposition to Goldsmiths’ publicly stated goals on diversity and…