Dr Helen Williams is Associate Professor of English Literature at Northumbria University. In collaboration with the Worshipful Company of Stationers, she holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship entitled 'Communicating Women's Work in the Historical Archive' (2022-2023), exploring the history of eighteenth-century women in the book trades.

A calico printer by trade, the 'Cumberland Bard' Robert Anderson has long been considered the standard bearer of Cumberland's contribution to bardic verse. Anderson was a close friend of the local stroller Charlotte Lowes. Other influential figures of the 'Cumbrian Enlightenment' in this episode include the 'Muse of Cumberland' Susanna Blamire and the 'Cumberland Minstrel' John Stagg, best known today for publishing "The Vampyre" in 1810, the first entire poem in the British tradition on the subject.

Dr Sue Allan was awarded her PhD from Lancaster University in 2017 for her study of Cumbrian folk song and she published a biography of Robert Anderson in 2020.

In this episode Rachel Hammersley joins me in Newcastle’s Lit and Phil to discuss Murray’s influence in the region at a critical moment in its political and cultural development.

Rachel Hammersley is Professor of Intellectual History at Newcastle University (UK).

Richard’s work examines the emergence of the professional provincial architect and his remarkable local archive work has allowed him to supplant the standard ‘urban renaissance’ understanding of eighteenth-century studies with his own powerful argument for a northern ‘rural renaissance’.

Dr Richard Pears is the Faculty Librarian for Arts and Humanities at Durham University.

Amélie Addison’s research has uncovered previously unexplored details of William Shield’s social background, his early career in the North, and his compositional influences, offering a new perspective on how these works reflect contemporary perceptions of national identity and culture.

Dr Amélie Addison received her PhD from the University of Leeds’ School of Music in 2023.

In this episode, I talk with Professor Emerita Gillian Russell about Wilkinson, York and the ephemerality of 18th theatre and performance.

Gillian Russell is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and formerly Professor of Eighteenth-Century English Literature at the University of York where she was Head of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies (CECS). In 2021 Gillian was awarded the prestigious Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for her latest book The Ephemeral Eighteenth Century.

The 18th century Newcastle entrepreneur, Anne Slack, who published under her maiden name Fisher, has been described as the first female grammarian of modern English. However, she has disappeared into the archives and Barbara Crosbie wants to bring her back.

Barbara Crosbie is Associate Professor of Early Modern British History at Durham University.

Jon Mee is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies in the English Department at the University of York.

In this first episode of Biographicon, Professor Alastair Bonnett and I explore the mind of Thomas Spence – a thinker so dangerous he was made illegal. As Alastair argues Spence was “the poorest and most determined militant in English history” and Spenceanism is the only political ideology outlawed by the British parliament. We take you on a psychogeographic tour of Spence's birthplace, Newcastle upon Tyne, in which Alastair presents his role within the Northumbrian Enlightenment.

Alastair Bonnett is Professor of Social Geography in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne.

- [William Taylor of Norwich] The Monthly Review: or Literary Journal, 74 (1814).



Welcome to Biographicon. In this trailer, I introduce myself and the cast of characters that will appear in the upcoming Biographicon podcasts, which will feature a host of people who went from 18th century fame to 21st century obscurity. Hopefully this will return them to their rightful place in memory.

But what is a biographicon anyway?