So, back in early November, a play by Rex Obano, called The Moors of England, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. 

The play imagines the life of Fortunatus, a black servant of Sir Robert Cecil's, during the period at the end of Elizabeth I's reign, when Cecil was being lobbied by Sir Thomas Sherley and Caspar Van Senden to allow them to transport 'Blackamoors' out of the realm. (You can read about the history of this episode here.)

I was honoured when Rex asked me to introduce the play and when you listen (below), you'll hear my 60 second intro at the start.

We also persuaded the director that it would be good to record a discussion between us exploring the wider context of the play, as much of this history is new to audiences. You can listen to our 20 minute discussion on BBC Sounds here, and read more about the Black Tudors in my book.

And, Rex and I are continuing to work together to dramatise the lives of the Black Tudors. He has been selected, alongside Catherine Johnson, to work with Silverprint Pictures on developing my book into a TV Drama series - very exciting! I'll be meeting up with them in the New Year to talk about potential storylines- watch this space for more news on that front!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy listening to The Moors of England...

It's that time of the year again, and, as always, I'm really looking forward to heading to Senate House, London on Thursday 8th November to hear all the latest news, research and views on Black British History. I thought I'd just whet your appetite by going through a few of the highlights...

NEW for WHBBH9 is our New Publications session where authors of recently published books get ten minutes each to tell us about them- a quick and easy way to make sure you're up with the latest cutting edge research and writing.

Then on to Dramatising Black British History, which actually could have been called 'Dramatising Black Tudor History', because all three writers have tackled 16th century stories: those of Catalina, the Moorish maid to Katherine of Aragon; John Blanke the Tudor court trumpeter, and Fortunatus, servant to Sir Robert Cecil. So you can guess why I'm particularly keen to hear from these writers! These three plays, by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Ade Solanke and Rex Obano respectively, have been performed at Ovalhouse and Colchester Arts Centre, at Hampton Court Palace and on Radio 3 ('The Moors of England' is due to be broadcast on Sunday 4th November at 19.30). It will be fascinating to hear what inspired them to tell these stories, the challenges of working with fragmentary historical sources, and how their work has been received.

We couldn't let 2018 pass without contemplating Windrush: 70 years on.  This session will be chaired by historian and activist Patrick Vernon, who has campaigned for full government recognition of the contribution  of the Windrush Generation, and of migrants more broadly. We will hear from Wendy Webster how many of the so-called 'Windrush Generation' were actually returning to Britain, having played a significant role in the Second World War; Peggy Warren and Joan Welsh will explore the testimonies of Black British Women about their struggles within the NHS; and Beverley Cooper-Chambers will share her analysis of how Caribbean families are (mis)represented on television. Bringing us right up to date, Clare Anyiam-Osigwe will be talking about the insights she gained through interviews for her short documentary, Windrush Stories.

Our third panel will explore the experiences of those giving Guided Tours of Black British History. Janet Couloute, an art historian and gallery guide at Tate Britain, was standing near an artwork by Lubaina Himid one day when someone asked her "Are you part of the exhibit?" Because of course a woman of colour standing in the middle of an art gallery is much more likely to be a work of art than an authority figure! Her presentation will explore the challenge of contesting such assumptions in the art world, and will be complemented by the perspectives of Lisa Williams, who has recently started conducting Black History Tours in Edinburgh, and Tony Warner, of the hugely successful London-based Black History Walks. 

To mix up the traditional final thoughts panel, we will be seeking thoughts and comments from the audience, so be ready!

The day will end with a Drinks Reception, where we will launch Kwaku's new book: Disrupting African British Histories?

I very much hope to see you there. For the full agenda and booking details go to the ICWS event page, or to book straight away click here.

I'm delighted to announce that Oneworld Publications, who did such a fantastic job with Black Tudors, will be publishing my next book, working title: Heiresses: The Caribbean Marriage Trade. 

In Heiresses, I will tell the controversial and fascinating stories of the women whose vast inherited fortunes – colonial wealth, generated by the labour of enslaved people in the Caribbean – were imported by marriage into British society. Their inheritances not only enabled them to marry into the top tiers of the aristocracy, but also attracted impoverished naval officers, soldiers, writers and, on occasion, unscrupulous fortune-hunters. The book will explore the source of their wealth, what happened to the women after they married and how the tainted money was spent on everything from country houses and paintings to foreign travel and paying off gambling debts. 

I've been intrigued by the subject even since I encountered Elizabeth Vassall, the larger-than-life heiress to three Jamaican sugar plantations, who married Sir Godfrey Webster of Battle Abbey while I was researching English Heritage properties' links to slavery and abolition back in 2006. 

As I told The Bookseller: "It’s fantastic to be given the opportunity to investigate these fascinating women, and expose how their slave-produced wealth came to all corners of Britain, under cover of matrimony. I’ve already found stories of arranged marriages, elopements, great love affairs, adultery, divorce, compulsive gambling, outrageously opulent entertaining, political intrigue, bankruptcy, insanity and suicide. I’m delighted to be working with the outstanding, supportive team at Oneworld again, and looking forward to sharing what I find with the world."

My editor at Oneworld, Sam Carter added: "We are thrilled to be publishing the brilliant and committed Miranda Kaufmann again, and in these stories of real-life Mrs Rochesters she’s found her perfect subject."

Watch this space to find out more as my research progresses...

If you think the book sounds interesting, you may also be interested in the Colonial Countryside project I'm working on with the National Trust, Peepal Tree Press and Corinne Fowler at the University of Leicester, using both children and adult's creative writing to explore ten National Trust properties' links with Caribbean slavery and the East India Company. 

I'm thrilled, excited, delighted and somewhat overwhelmed that my book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018!  This award is like the Oscars of History, with prize money of £40,000, and runners-up getting £4,000! The winner will be announced at a fancy reception at Claridges on Monday 4th June. 

There are only six books on the shortlist, so, given how many history books are published every year, it's a huge honour to be amongst them- especially as the judges are historians I greatly admire, particularly Diarmaid McCulloch, whose lectures I really loved at Oxford. It's also quite overwhelming to look back at the list of previous winners, that includes so many historians I revere.

The six books (with judges' quotes) are: 

Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination by Robert Bickers (Allen Lane, Penguin Press)
“An ambitious book delivered in an animated, accessible style. Based on an impressive sweep of archival material, with brilliant vignettes on subjects such as pre-war Shanghai, Bickers demonstrates a clarity and depth of knowledge which helps to frame modern China.”

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris (Allen Lane, Penguin Press)
“A serious work of research from a first-time author. Written in a lively, engaging style – and with no gruesome detail spared – Fitzharris transports her reader to the pivotal moment at which Joseph Lister transformed the worlds of science and medicine.”

A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War by Tim Grady (Yale University Press)
“A brave and brilliant history that presents a new view of the German Jewish community during the First World War. Measured in style and magisterial in quality, this accomplished account sheds light on the enormous diversity of Jewish experience.”

Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann (Oneworld)
“A remarkable and important first book which uncovers and explores a previously neglected area of British history. Kaufmann imaginatively uses material from a range of sources to bring to life the overlooked stories of Africans in Tudor Britain.”

Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation by Peter Marshall (Yale University Press)
“A beautifully judged account of the English Reformation. Marshall weaves a single narrative through a contentious century without loss of detail or depth of understanding. Full of wise and humane analysis, this is ambitious in scope and brilliant in execution.”

Heligoland: Britain, Germany and the Struggle for the North Sea by Jan Rüger (Oxford University Press)
“An engrossing and accomplished history that uses the island of Heligoland to trace the complex course of Anglo-German relations across two centuries. Rüger offers a daring account that brilliantly uses micro-history to find the bigger picture.” 

Another wonderful thing about being shortlisted is that the judges look for books that combine scholarly research with readability, or as judge Professor David Cannadine puts it, books with a 'commitment to share careful research and a deep love of their subject with as wide an audience as possible' and what Wolfson CEO Paul Ramsbottom describes as 'books that sparkle with brilliance, breaking new ground in our understanding of the past – and which are written in ways that appeal to a wide audience' -and that's exactly what I was trying to achieve with Black Tudors! 

I'll be joining BBC presenter, Professor Rana Mitter, and the other shortlisted authors for a debate about writing history and an insight into each of our books at a BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking event at the British Academy on the evening of Wednesday 9th May. You can read more about the event and book your free ticket here.
​ 
In the meantime, wish me luck: may the best book win!

I'm really looking forward to WHBBH8 which will be at the University of Huddersfield on Thursday 10th May. As you can see from the jam-packed agenda below, there'll be lots of exciting history to discover. We'll kick off by looking at 'visitors' to Britain : first up Abigail Coppins of English Heritage on the Black Prisoners of War held at Portchester Castle in Hampshire 1793-1814. Then we'll hear about Frederick Douglass and the other Black abolitionists speaking tours in 19th century Britain- you can see how Hannah Murray has mapped their journeys on her website. The third presentation of Session One will be about Claude McKay- you can read an article Owen Walsh has written about him here.

Black British History has been inspiring some amazing theatre recently. We'll be looking at this in Session Two with presentations from Testament, author of Black Men Walking- in which members of a Black Men's walking group trek through both the Yorkshire Peaks and a thousand years of Black History in Britain; from Sharon Watson, the Artistic Director of the Phoenix Dance Theatre, talking about a new Windrush- inspired ballet; and Joe Williams discussing his theatrical response to the life of Victorian circus owner Pablo Fanque. 

An event in Huddersfield would not be complete without some local Yorkshire Black History so we'll be hearing from Audrey Dewjee, a pioneer of the field, John Ellis who's been researching Black British Soldiers in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jeff Green on Black Victorians in Huddersfield, and Milton Brown taking us right up to the present day.

We'll then have a brief interlude in which Corinne Fowler, Director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester tells us a bit about the exciting new Colonial Countryside project, which will be looking at connections between National Trust houses, Caribbean slavery and the East India Company. 

The final session of the day will be exploring the musical legacies of slavery in Britain- from blackface minstrelry, to black British jazz in Tiger Bay via the slavery profits invested into musical patronage in 18th century Britain. 

As usual we'll end with a Drinks Reception, with the added bonus of this segueing into the opening of the Let's Play Vinyl photography exhibition, celebrating a new generation of UK sound systems.  

So all in all, it's looking to be an exciting and stimulating day- look forward to seeing you there!

To book, click here.


What's Happening in Black British History? VIII
Workshop Agenda
10:00 Registration

10:30           Welcome
                    Sue Onslow Acting Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
 

10:40            Session One   Black 'visitors' to Britain

Chair            Miranda Kaufmann
 
‘The Honour of the Nation’: Black Prisoners of War at Portchester Castle, 1793-1814
Abigail Coppins (English Heritage)
‘With Almost Electric Speed’: Mapping Black Abolitionists in Britain                
Hannah Rose Murray (University of Nottingham)
The “English Inning” of Claude McKay, Transnational Writer and Socialist     
Owen Walsh (University of Leeds)

12:00         Coffee Break

12:15           Session Two  Black British History on stage

Chair           Michael Ohajuru
 
Reflections on Black Men Walking                 
Testament (writer, rapper and world record holding beatboxer)
Movement of the People: A journey through the development of Windrush: Performance and people
Sharon Watson (Phoenix Dance Theatre)
Pablo Fanque: pomp, pageantry and race in Victorian Circus
Joe Williams (University of Leeds, Heritage Corner, Leeds)

 13:30          Lunch

 14:30          Session Three Black British History in Yorkshire
Chair           Tosh Warwick
 
Here From Time:  Stories from Yorkshire's Black History.               
Audrey Dewjee (Independent researcher, Diasporian Stories Research Group)
Soldiers of African origin in British Army Regiments in England and Yorkshire, 1700s to 1840s.          
John Ellis (Historian and Teacher)
British-born African Caribbean descendants in West Yorkshire, navigating race and identity from the 1960s to present               
Milton Brown (University of Huddersfield, Kirklees Local TV)
My Search For Black British History: Black Americans In Victorian Huddersfield                 
Jeffrey Green (Independent Historian)
 

 16:00        Coffee Break

 16:15         Colonial Countryside: Reinterpreting English Country Houses
                   Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester)
 
                   Session Four  The musical legacies of slavery in Britain
Chair         Paul Ward
 
Blackface minstrelsy and Black Studies
Rachel Cowgill (University of Huddersfield)
The Use of the Profits of Slavery to Support Musical Activity in Eighteenth-century Britain and its Colonies
David Hunter (University of Texas at Austin)
Tiger Bay and the roots/routes of black British Jazz
Catherine Tackley (University of Liverpool)
 

 17:40         Reception/ Opening of Let’s Play Vinyl Exhibition

Following the success of our previous events in London, Liverpool, Bristol and Preston we would like to invite you to the eighth of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies’ Black British History Workshops (WHBBH8) at the University of Huddersfield, on Thursday 10th May 2018.The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), artists and writers, archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK and facilitate discussion of the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.

We welcome proposals for papers and presentations on a wide variety of themes relating to the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK. As this is the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush we are particularly keen to receive papers on the Windrush Generation and their impact on Britain. As we will be in Huddersfield local and regional or family histories from Huddersfield and the North of England would also be welcome.

We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation, lasting for 15-20 minutes. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation either in writing (in which case, of no more than 300 words) or in some other form (for example a clip or podcast) to Dr. Miranda Kaufmann at miranda.kaufmann@sas.ac.uk by  16th March 2018.

In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel. The panel should have a coherent unifying theme, and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and affiliations of the presenters. We would also be interested in providing A-level students, undergraduates or graduate students with an opportunity to give presentations on projects relating to Black British History.
The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception. There will be a registration fee of £20 (£10 for students/unwaged) to cover the costs of lunch and refreshments. A limited number of travel bursaries will be available to independent speakers on application. Requests to register should be sent to olga.jimenez@sas.ac.uk.

Book now to attend "What's Happening in Black British History? VII"! #WHBBH7 is the seventh in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies series that I co-convene with Michael Ohajuru exploring the history of peoples of African origin and descent in Britain. 

The day will feature a keynote speech by broadcaster, historian and author David Olusoga, author of Black and British: A Forgotten History. This will be part of a great line-up of engaging, informed speakers, with sessions on:  Broadcasting Black British History; What do young people see happening in Black British History? and Imagination and Reality: Africans in Sixteenth Century Britain.  

WHBBH7 will be held at Senate House, London on Thursday 26th October, 10.30am-6.30pm. The full programme and event details are available on the Institute of Commonwealth Studies website. You can book your place here. 

​I'm beyond excited to present the finished cover for my forthcoming book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story which will be published in the UK on 5th October 2017 and in the USA on 14th November 2017.

And truly honoured by this review:

‘Intricately researched and brilliantly written… alive with human details and warmth. Black Tudors is a critical book that allows us to better understand an era of our national past that fascinates us like no other.’ - DAVID OLUSOGA 

It's already available for pre-order on Amazon, and some kind friends say they have already bought their copies!

You can read more about the book here, or meet the ten African men and women featured here.

I'm taking a break over the summer, but will be back in force in the autumn to promote the book, so watch this space for details of my talks –I'm already booked to speak at the BBC History Weekends in Winchester (Sun 8 October) and York (Saturday 25 November)– or get in touch if you'd like to invite me to speak about my work at your local venue.

Less than a month to go now until our next What’s Happening in Black British History? workshop, which will be held at The Institute for Black Atlantic Research, University of Central Lancashire, Preston on Thursday 16th March, 11am-6pm. 

I'm really looking forward to the keynote from historian and author Professor Gretchen Gerzina on Why Black British History Matters: An American Perspective. You may have heard her recent BBC Radio 4 series, Britain's Black Past- still available to listen to on iPlayer. 

We've got an action packed programme as usual, with sessions on: Beyond the Margins: Diverse Black Histories in Britain;  Fathers’ Migration Stories and Black British Experiences of War.

Have a read of what's on offer and then book your place here. 

Looking forward to seeing you there!


WHBBH6 Programme
10.30- 11.00    Registration: tea & coffee
11.00-12.30     Session One: Beyond the Margins: Diverse Black Histories in Britain

            Chair: Alan Rice (IBAR)

Alan Rice (IBAR), Vagrant Presences and Reparative Histories: Lost Children, The Black Atlantic and Northern Britain

Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester), How Writers Can Public Raise Awareness of the Black Histories of Britain's Countryside and Why It Matters

Theresa Saxon (IBAR), Ira Aldridge in Britain

Raphael Hoermann (IBAR), “The fate of St. Domingo awaits you”: The Haitian Revolution and the Haitian Gothic with White and Black British Radicals, 1804-1819
12.30-1.30 Session Two: Fathers’ Migration Stories

           Chair: Miranda Kaufmann

Hannah Lowe (Kingston University) Ormonde: Post-War Caribbean Migration through Poetry

SuAndi and Jackie Ould (AfroSolo UK) My Father Always Wore A Dunhill Hat

1.30- 2.30                    Lunch

2.30- 4.00 Session Three: Black British Experiences of War

           Chair: Sean Creighton

John Siblon (Birkbeck College), First World War Memorials of African, Asian and Caribbean Colonial servicemen in Britain

Melissa Bennett (University of Warwick), Deciphering photographs of black military bodies prior to World War One

Lauren Darwin (African Stories in Hull and East Yorkshire), “You black men are not wanted in this country”: Exploring the dichotomy between the experience of Black sailors before, during and after World War One in Hull.

4.00-4.30                     Tea/coffee

4.30- 5.30        Keynote address: Professor Gretchen Gerzina ((University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Why Black British History Matters: An American Perspective

5.30- 6.30                   Final Thoughts and Conclusions

             Chair: Michael Ohajuru

Panel: Alan Rice, Elizabeth Burke, Gretchen Gerzina 

 6.30 -7.30                    Reception