Essex in the Age of Enlightenment brings together eleven studies in historical biography by John Bensusan-Butt. In a direct and engaging style, they explore the lives of musicians, artists, a highly original architect, a skilled doctor, a forthright lawyer who was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, a benevolent cleric, a suicidal poet and others who lived in or near Colchester in Essex. These essays examine patronage and the arts in Georgian provincial towns, public service and philanthropy as well as urban culture, polite society and its politics and personalities. John Bensusan-Butt (1911-1997) was a knowledgeable local historian whose research career spanned some forty years. Shani D'Cruze is Honorary Reader at Keele University. She is the author of A Pleasing Prospect: Social Change and Urban Culture in Eighteenth-Century Colchester (Hertford, 2008) and is also a historian of gender, crime and violence.

In An Artisan Intellectual, Christopher Ferguson examines the life and ideas of English tailor and writer James Carter, one of countless and largely anonymous citizens whose lives dramatically transformed during Britain’s long march to modernity. Carter began his working life at age thirteen as an apprentice and continued to work as a tailor throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, first in Colchester and then in London. As the Industrial Revolution brought innovations to every aspect of British life, Carter took advantage of opportunities to push against the boundaries of his working-class background. He supplemented his income through his writing, publishing often unsigned books, articles, and poems on subjects as diverse as religion, death, nature, aesthetics, and theories of civilization. Carter’s words give us a fascinating window into the revolutionary forces that upended the world of ordinary citizens in this era and demonstrate how the changes in daily life impacted personal experiences and intellectual pursuits as well as labor practices and living and working environments. Ferguson deftly explores a forgotten tailor’s varied responses to the many transformations that produced the world’s first modern society.

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist “A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” —New York Times London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.

Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Temperley is the first book to focus upon aspects of performance in the broader context of nineteenth-century British musical culture. In four Parts, 'Musical Cultures', 'Societies', 'National Music' and 'Methods', this volume assesses the role music performance plays in articulating significant trends and currents of the cultural life of the period and includes articles on performance and individual instruments; orchestral and choral ensembles; church and synagogue music; music societies; cantatas; vocal albums; the middle-class salon, conducting; church music; and piano pedagogy. An introduction explores Temperley's vast contribution to musicology, highlighting his seminal importance in creating the field of nineteenth-century British music studies, and a bibliography provides an up-to-date list of his publications, including books and monographs, book chapters, journal articles, editions, reviews, critical editions, arrangements and compositions. Fittingly devoted to a significant element in Temperley's research, this book provides scholars of all nineteenth-century musical topics the opportunity to explore the richness of Britain's musical history.

Directly presenting the considered views of a broad cross-section of the international arbitration community, this timely collection of essays addresses the criticism of the arbitral process that has been voiced in recent years, interpreting the challenge as an invitation to enlightenment. The volume records the entire proceedings of the twenty-fifth Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), held in Edinburgh in September 2022. Topics range from the impact of artificial intelligence to the role of international arbitration in restraining resort to unilateralism, protectionism, and nationalism. The contributors tackle such contentious issues as the following: time and cost; gender and cultural diversity; confidentiality vs. transparency; investor-State dispute settlement procedures; the proposed establishment of a permanent international investment court system; how cross-fertilisation across different disciplines may impact international arbitration; determining whether a document request seeks documents that are relevant and material to the outcome of a dispute; whether we would be better off if investment arbitration were to disappear; and implications for international arbitration of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is consideration of global issues that are likely to give rise to disputes in the future, including climate change, environmental protection, access to depleting water resources, energy and mining transition, and human rights initiatives. Several contributions focus on developments in specific countries (China, India) and regions (Africa, the Middle East). Arbitrators, corporate counsel, and policymakers will appreciate this opportunity to engage with current thinking on key issues in international commercial and investment arbitration, especially given the diversity of thought presented by authors from all over the world.

Eighteenth-century Colchester in Essex was a sizeable provincial town. Colchester People is a mine of information for those researching particular individuals and families. It also builds up a picture of social, political and religious connections between families, individuals and neighbourhoods.This biographical dictionary is based on the archive compiled by John Bensusan Butt. It identifies over 1,000 individuals of the middling sort and town gentry who lived in or were associated with Colchester.This is the first of three volumes.It covers those with surnames from A to L. Volume 2 deals with surnames M to Y. Volume 3 contains appendices including entries for Colchester's eighteenth-century inns and full indexes cross-referenced across all volumes.

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, 'the general effect of the theatre is to strengthen the national character to augment the national inclinations, and to give a new energy to all the passions'. During the Enlightenment, the advancement of radical ideas along with the emergence of the bourgeois class contributed to a renewed interest in theatre's efficacy, informed by philosophy yet on behalf of politics. While the 18th century saw a growing desire to define the unique and specific features of a nation's drama, and audiences demanded more realistic portrayals of humanity, theatre is also implicated in this age of revolutions. A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Enlightenment examines these intersections, informed by the writings of key 18th-century philosophers. Richly illustrated with 45 images, the ten chapters each take a different theme as their focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.