“Mike has done what so many people have wished they could to do – introduce us to an ancestor with wit, poise, and no small sense of humour.”
Review of “Journal of a Georgian Gentleman“
Mike graduated from Southampton University with a First Class Honours degree in Law and then pursued a legal career in Bristol for thirty years. He headed his firm’s Private Client department and introduced the country’s first 24/7 property transfer service.
He retired in 2003, initially moving to Spain and now lives with his wife Philippa in the Dorset town of Sherborne. He used his retirement to study the primary source material which his family had been storing in boxes and tea chests for hundreds of years – including diaries, accounts, journals and old newspapers. He used this information to write a social history of life in the eighteenth century, based on the life-story of his ancestor Richard Hall. He had been a hosier, making silk stockings, from his home at Number One London Bridge. The story was published as The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman, and since then Mike has had some fifteen books published, all with an eighteenth century flavour.
Mike has given talks in America (in New York and at Colonial Williamsburg) and in Spain, as well as in venues throughout Britain. In the last ten years he has delivered specialist talks on board cruise ships around the world – with Cunard, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Celebrity, Princess and with Fred Olsen lines.
MEDIA KIT
Summary of biographical information, publicity photographs, publications and reviews
VIDEO PRESENTATION
Given at the Museum of London for Gresham College
REVIEWS:
Dr Valerie Shrimplin, Academic Registrar Gresham College: “I know from comments received from colleagues and members of the audience how interesting they found your talk and what an enthusiastic and engaging speaker you are – so clearly passionate about your subject.”
“I’m still in a happily stunned history haze.”
“Fabulous talk by Mike Rendell at Museum of London last night. He rocked the joint”.
Mike’s newest BLOG posts – “the very latest in early Georgian”
Mike Rendell has written many books, all of them about Georgian England. His interest in the period was inspired by a fascinating cache of papers left by his 18th century ancestors.
“Mostly-Mannered Musings of Richard Hall”
- A New Cock Wanted – or work for the plumberAnother day, another Rowlandson – and another print from the Thomas Tegg series of caricatures. It was published in London on 20 April 1810 and is shown on the Metropolitan Museum site here. It also features in the Royal Collection. The Met. description states: A maidservant standing by a splattering sink at left, showing a… Read More »A New Cock Wanted – or work for the plumber
- The Prospect Before Us – one artist, three pictures, one title.I was intrigued to see that Thomas Rowlandson had prepared three different etchings, all with the title of ‘The Prospect Before Us’ and I thought I would have a closer look at all three. First up, a caricature from December 1788 – a time when King George III was showing signs of mental illness and … Read More »The Prospect Before Us – one artist, three pictures, one title.
- William Bonner’s Trade Card – looking at it with a fine-tooth comb …A lovely trade card on the Lewis Walpole Library site. It belonged to William Bonner and according to his trade card he made and supplied all sorts of fine box combs ‘ye teeth so curiously finely and artificially wrought that they enter the hairs with ease without tearing or splitting them.”. A beautiful card –… Read More »William Bonner’s Trade Card – looking at it with a fine-tooth comb …
Mike Rendell
Author – Historian – International Lecturer
“Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it, and pass it on.
Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day.
Pass it on, boys. That’s the game I want you to learn. Pass it on…”
Character: “Hector, the History Teacher“ from Alan Bennett ‘s The History Boys – London, 2006
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Attributions and Bibliography
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Mike Rendell – Dorset, United Kingdom
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