A year with Gilbert White

Our annual lecture, a collaboration between Arts of Place and OCLW, brings together thinking about place with some of the most exciting current work in the fields of biography and life-writing. Lives happen in places; places shape lives and have lives of their own.

We’ll be welcoming Jenny Uglow OBE to speak about her new book A Year With Gilbert White: The Story of a Nature Writer (to be published by Faber this September). Jenny is the author of highly acclaimed biographies and histories, including the classic of Midlands history The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future. The talk forms part of our ‘Pioneers of Local Thinking’ series.

This lecture is free and open to all, but please register using the link above.

Jenny Uglow

A former editorial director of Chatto & Windus, and previous Chair of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, Jenny Uglow OBE is a celebrated biographer and historian. Her books on scientists, writers and artists include the classic of Midlands history The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future, as well as Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick and Edward Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense. Her book on Gilbert White will be published in September 2025.