Participant Info

First Name
Mary L.
Last Name
Shannon
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
University of Roehampton, London
Website URL
https://linktr.ee/marylshannon
Keywords
Victorian, Regency, monarchy, radicalism, Dickens, London, art, theatre, race, disability, popular culture, fiction, cities, newspapers, Christmas, childhood, Navy
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
University phone number: +44 (0)20 8392 3227
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me
I research and write about Regency and Victorian popular culture, fiction, plays, images, and the press. I’m fascinated by the cultural world of nineteenth-century London and its teeming history: the places, the people, and the streets. My book on the 1820s African-American London busker Billy Waters, Billy Waters is Dancing: Or, How A Black Sailor Found Fame In Regency and Victorian Britain will be published by Yale in 2024. I speak on the Radio and TV about nineteenth-century culture and I do historical consultancy work.
Recent Publications

Billy Waters is Dancing: Or, How A Black Sailor Found Fame in Regency Britain (Yale UP, June 11 2024)

  • ‘Compassionately researched, Billy Waters is Dancingprovides a thrilling example of how much we still must learn about our pasts. Shannon creates a brilliant roadmap for the future of history writing.’

Ayanna Thompson, author of Blackface

  • ‘Dazzling! Read this book to discover the dramatic life and legacy of one indomitable man, among the delights and diversity of Regency London.’

Penelope J. Corfield, author of The Georgians

  • ‘How to atone for the great imbalances of history writing and representation, asks Shannon? Her answer is simple: produce the most sumptuous, intelligent, enjoyable excavation possible, and render the marginal magnificent!’

Oskar Jensen, author of Vagabonds

  • ‘This book is a powerful illumination of the life of one of the most influential Black people in nineteenth-century Victorian popular culture, a vital story that fell through the cracks in the rejuvenation era of individualised Black British history.’

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Member of Parliament for Streatham

 

Winner, 2016 international Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize; Shortlisted, 2017 University English Early-Career Book Prize:

Dickens, Reynolds and Mayhew on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street (Farnham: Ashgate/Routledge 2015) [90,000 words]

  • ‘a brilliant piece of historical detective work and a genuine pleasure to read’

Robert Douglas Fairhurst

 

Media Coverage
TV and Radio credits: BBC R3 'Busking and Billy waters' https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fb2ppm; BBC 2 'Villages by the Sea'; BBC Radio Coventry; BBC Radio Bristol; BBC Radio Ulster
Country Focus
United Kingdom
Expertise by Geography
British Isles, North America, United Kingdom
Expertise by Chronology
19th century
Expertise by Topic
Art & Architectural History, Book History, Children & Youth, Colonialism, Disability, Higher Ed, Libraries & Archives, Literary History, Material Culture, Migration & Immigration, Military, Pedagogy, Public History, Race, Rebellion & Revolution, Slavery, Urban History