New cover for the Children History Forgot!

My publishers Robert Hale have come up with a lovely new cover for The Children History Forgot, which will be released in a few weeks. I think it really sums up the poverty which so many children endured, and which was a prime factor in the prevalence of child labour in Georgian and Victorian times.  Children were expected to earn their keep from an early age, unless they came from an extremely affluent family.

The Victorians

I finally managed to see Jeremy Paxman’s The Victorians on BBC1 last night, which discussed Britain’s industrial achievements, of which the crowning pinnacle was the Great Exhibition of 1851 . Mr Paxman also looked at the human cost of Britain’s imperial and military conquests. I was pleased he took time to look at Victorian life from the viewpoint of the lower classes as well as that of self-made men such as William Armstrong of Cragside in Northumberland.
And of course, you can discover more about life for workers in places like Manchester, Liverpool and Barrow during late Georgian and Victorian times in my book Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives.

Image: The Great Exhibition of 1851; the Crystal Palace was revolutionary in its use of glass and cast iron for building materials. Engraving by Joseph Swain, Old and New London, Vol. 5, (Edward Walford, c.1894.)