On 26 May 2021, the Dorset History Centre will be hosting a free zoom event during which three authors will talk about their latest books, all of which have involved local history research.
Ed Perkin, author of Britain’s Forgotten Traitor: The Life and Death of a Nazi Spy, will look at the life of an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary wartime events who agreed to spy for the Nazis. He will ask why did Oswald John Job intend to carry out his mission or was there a miscarriage of justice?
Frances Bingham, author of Valentine Ackland: A Transgressive Life, will talk about her biography of this remarkable gender-rebel, poet and Dorset resident, who was the partner of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Valentine was a dedicated writer, deeply involved with Communism during the 1930s, a volunteer in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and an environmentalist and peace campaigner. Recently released MI5 files show that she was blacklisted for confidential work during the Second World War, and remained under long-term surveillance, as much for her ‘abnormality’ as for her politics.
Brian Bates, author of Villains, Victims and Tragedies: Stories from the Dorset Assizes, will reveal the dramas, tragedies, and even comedies, that played out at the Dorset assize courts during the 19th century. Sales of the book raises funds for the Dorset Women’s Refuge.