Hi, I'd love to be added as a writer. I'm a social historian and an art historian so I wear two caps piled on top of each other. I'd love to be considered as a writer for Lessons from History. There are so many fascinating people from the past that I find it hard to single out one figure. I've spent a lot of time on Sir Henry Irving, who was the 19th century equivalent of Brad Pitt. He was the subject of my PhD, and was the most famous actor of his day. He started off his life sort of like a Bob Cratchit and ended up dining with the Prince of Wales. So he did alright for himself. I was interested in how he made that transition, with all the odds stacked against him. Can you judge the past with today's lens? No, but looking at people and events in history can help us to understand where we have come from and the historical legacies that we live with today. And that helps us to contextualise the ideas and events in our world, and to understand ourselves better.

My username is @thegallerycompanion