Jacqueline Riding will be in Manchester to talk about her new book PETERLOO the night after the UK premiere of Mike Leigh’s forthcoming film of the same name on which she was the historical advisor. 

Blackwell’s Manchester presents a talk and Q&A about a book which tracks the story of a defining moment in the history of British democracy: the horrific massacre of 1819.

Manchester, August 1819: 60,000 people had gathered in the cause of parliamentary reform. To those defending the status quo, the vote was not a universal right, but a privilege of wealth and land ownership. To radical reformers the fundamental overhaul of a corrupt system was long overdue. The people had come to hear one such reformer, Henry Hunt, from all over Lancashire, walking to the sound of hymns and folk songs.

By the end of the day fifteen of them, including two women and a child, were dead or mortally wounded, and 650 injured, hacked down by drunken yeomanry after local magistrates panicked at the scale of the meeting. The British state, four years after defeating the ‘tyrant’ Bonaparte at Waterloo, had turned its forces against its own people, as they peaceably exercised their liberties.

We recommend pre-booking for this talk – tickets are only £3.

‘A superb account of one of the defining moments in modern British history’ Tristram Hunt

‘Peterloo is one of the greatest scandals of British political history … Jacqueline Riding tells this tragic story with mesmerising skill’ John Bew, author of Citizen Clem

‘Fast-paced and full of fascinating detail’ Tim Clayton, author of Waterloo