Here is a little bit more about my day job (quite a lot of people seem interested in this!) which – along with my colleagues – is a great source of inspiration, posted by the lovely Peter Hay on his blog. Also, you can view my contribution to Parliament Week on YouTube, where I talk about some of my favourite […]
Parliamentary History
Westminster’s Throne on Wheels
Last week I made a whistle-stop trip to the Museum of London to look at Adam Lee’s 1808 plan of the old Palace of Westminster in their Library. This was a document I had been trying to track down for at least a year, thanks to a garbled footnote. Job done, I headed for the […]
John Rickman, Census Man
22 August marks the 240th anniversary of the birth of John Rickman (b. 1771). Successively Speaker’s Secretary and Clerk Assistant of the Commons, Rickman was a brilliant polymath: a proto-statistician, founder of the UK Census, reforming Parliamentary official and friend of Byron, Charles Lamb and Telford. He is also a key figure in the story […]
What the Dickens…?
Dickens in the 1830s, looking a good deal more glamorous than in later life Filling in the publicity form, one question which came up asked about anniversaries or other events which could be used as a hook to promote THE BOOK. There’s the fire itself of course (16 October every year – 178th anniversary in 2012). More topically, there’s the […]
On the Burning of Parliaments
I’m just back from Berlin where I was attending a conference run by the ECPRD – the association of European Parliamentary libraries. Usually I don’t go to these events as they’re not often about archival stuff; however, this year the theme was “Parliamentary history and its communication to the public” which was right up my street. […]
Treasures of the Victoria Tower
Delighted to see a really great review of the book I recently finished with colleagues at work. Hits the nail right on the head about what we were trying to do. Here’s hoping my solo effort will get the same reaction…
