I’m a historian and biographer. For many years I was professor of History at the University of Greenwich, London. Since taking early retirement in 2004, I’ve been based in north Pembrokeshire. I’m currently an honorary professor at Swansea University and the author/editor of a dozen books and numerous articles. Publications range from an award-winning book for schools (‘Coalmining Women’) to editing a pioneering book of essays on Welsh women’s lives (‘Our Mothers’ Land’) and ‘The Actors’ Crucible: Port Talbot and the Making of Burton, Hopkins, Sheen and All the Others’ which explores why my home town became a place of stars as well as steel. I’ve written biographies of Lady Charlotte Guest, Henry Nevinson, Evelyn Sharp and, Elizabeth Robins. My book ‘Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda’ became the basis for a Welsh National Opera touring production in 2018: ‘Rhondda Rips It Up!’ My most recent book is ‘Rocking the boat: Welsh Women who Championed Equality, 1840-1990′. I’ve also penned Introductions to reprints of four novels in the Honno Classics series: three by Menna Gallie and one by Cecily Mackworth (for which I received a Literature Wales Writers’ Bursary). I’ve helped to revive inter-war drama by P.H. Burton on the Welsh stage and have taken part in a number of television and radio programmes including Radio 4’s ‘Great Lives’. I enjoy giving talks to a wide range of audiences. I’m part of the Monumental Welsh Women group organising statues of 5 women across Wales, am a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and of the Royal Historical Society and president of Llafur, the Welsh People’s History Society. I am currently writing a biography of Philip Burton to be published in 2025.
