Caroline Shenton

Archivist, historian and writer

A Westminster Boy Made Good

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One of the most fascinating things about Charles Barry, architect of the new Palace of Westminster, is that he was born and brought up in the shadow of the old one.  Find out more in my blogpost for the Victorian House of Commons project at the History of Parliament…

 

About Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.