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Naomi Clifford

Books + Talks

human interest

Kitty Cochrane: Adventurer for Latin American Independence

Naomi Clifford

It is my great pleasure to host an extract of Charmian Kenner’s new book Revolutionary Partners: Sarah Andrews and British Campaigners for Latin American Independence. Charmian Kenner sets the scene: Naomi’s blog about Thomas Cochrane and Kitty Barnes told the story of a daring Scottish naval captain and his young bride, who eloped in 1812. […]

Out of the Shadows: Essays on 18th and 19th Century Women

Naomi Clifford

It’s always a bit cringey to be advertising one’s own wares but let’s not be silly… deep breath… here goes. I have compiled some of my research and longer website articles into a slim volume titled Out of the Shadows: Essays on 18th and 19th Century Women, published by Caret Press. (Note: Caret Press is […]

A new book on Vauxhall Gardens!

Naomi Clifford

If you have loved Bridgerton, Vanity Fair, Sanditon and the many other books and TV series to feature a twirl around Vauxhall Gardens you will welcome this new volume of essays by David E. Coke, a leading expert in London’s pleasure gardens of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The book follows on from Coke’s […]

Property Rites: How ‘modern’ is the story of Mary Ashford?

Naomi Clifford

As a warning to female virtue, and a humbleMonument to female chastity,This stone marks the grave ofMARY ASHFORD,Who, in the 20th year of her age,Having incautiously repaired to aScene of amusement, without proper protection,Was brutally violated and murderedOn the 27th of May 1817. Mary Ashford’s gravestone, Sutton Coldfield churchyard Early one May morning in 1817 […]

Online talk: Louise Michel in South London

Naomi Clifford

In 1883 the feminist anarchist Louise Michel visited a south London workhouse. Why was the opinion of this ex-convict veteran of the Paris Commune on provision for the poor in London so valued? Find out at my free online talk on Wednesday 14 April at 7pm for Vauxhall History and Friends of South Lambeth Library. […]

5 Georgian era drinking scenes

Naomi Clifford

To mark the re-opening of pubs, bars, nightclubs and restaurants on 4 July 2020 following England’s period of lockdown, I bring you five scenes of drinking, each of them featuring at least one woman. Just because I’m like that. So please come with me on my little bar crawl. I can promise you will emerge […]

Did Birmingham artist Samuel Lines know murdered Mary Ashford?

Naomi Clifford

Early in the morning of Tuesday 27 May 1817, a labourer came across a pair of boots, a bonnet and bundle of clothes near a stagnant pit of water just north of the village of Erdington near Birmingham. He surmised that someone had gone into the pit and ran to raise the alarm at a […]

Unvarnished truth? The unreliable autobiography of Mary Saxby

Naomi Clifford

Mary Saxby’s memoirs of life as an itinerant in late Georgian England paint a vivid picture of harassment, vulnerability and near destitution, but they were written with a particular purpose in mind – as a story of conversion of a sinful woman to evangelical nonconformist Christianity. One half of the world does not know how […]

The Legend of Margaret Catchpole

Naomi Clifford

Over two hundred years after her death, Margaret Catchpole (1762–1811) is remembered by many – for the things she was not and the things she did not do, largely because someone who never met her wrote her purported biography, which was largely a work of fiction. Ironically Margaret Catchpole’s life was extraordinary enough without this. […]

There’s Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm

Naomi Clifford

The subtitle of this book by Dr Gabrielle Malcolm, an expert in Austen’s place in popular culture and the global fan world associated with Austen, is The curious appeal of Jane Austen’s bewitching hero. How has he managed to get under our skin and why do we love him so much? If you watched TV […]