This year for the 187th anniversary of the fire which burned down the old Houses of Parliament, I’m marking the event with a talk on Zoom. With stunning images from the Parliamentary Art Collection and other galleries, you’ll have a ringside seat from the comfort of your own home as I recount the story through the depictions of the fire by contemporary artists, including Turner. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and are £3.75 (plus a small booking fee). Look forward to seeing you there (byob)!
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.