By Joshua Robinson – 

On Monday 29th April, the Huddersfield Local History Society and the University of Huddersfield will present the tenth in a series of annual lectures focusing on aspects of the history of radicalism in the Huddersfield district, and beyond.

Graphic artist Paul Fitzgerald and historian Professor Robert Poole will give the 2024 Luddite Memorial Lecture. In 2019 Paul and Robert produced ‘Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre’ together, using strictly factual verbatim narrative to tell the story of the Peterloo massacre as a graphic history.

Intrigued by the question of historical accuracy when such narratives are portrayed in visual and dramatic forms, they will discuss (and, as they say, sometimes disagree about) how to do history in public and with pictures at the lecture.

Actor Maxine Peake said this ‘amazing artwork’ was a ‘powerful testimony to the 1819 massacre’ while historian and broadcaster Michael Wood described it as ‘a must-read’.

Paul and Robert commented: “All history involves selecting material and offering narratives, but how far can we go without distorting the past? What are the particular issues surrounding visual history, and especially graphic novels? What can they achieve that other mediums can’t? Where do we draw the line between advocacy and propaganda? Should we ever sanitise our historical heroes? Should creators be allowed to make things up to drive a more engaging drama?”

Huddersfield Local History Society Chair, Cyril Pearce said: “This year’s Luddite Memorial Lecture is going to look very different. It will be exploring how we might marry the art of the graphic novel with the rigours of Historical scholarship. To do that we couldn’t hope for better guides. It promises to be quite an occasion.”

Paul Fitzgerald is a professional political cartoonist, prop builder, and graphic novelist. He is the founder and chair of the Peterloo Memorial Campaign and his most recent graphic novel is ‘PAINE: a fantastical visual biography’.

Robert Poole, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Central Lancashire, was the historical consultant to the Peterloo bicentenary programme in 2019. His publications include ‘Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre’ but his ongoing research interests also focus on the film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’

Professor Tim Thornton, the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor who is himself a historian and will be introducing the lecture, said: “The distinguished sequence of lecturers who have delivered the Luddite Memorial Lecture has been marked by a fascinating diversity of approaches to their topic. This year’s lecture develops this further, allowing us to consider some of the powerful alternative presentations of the past which helped to make the events, activities and publications marking the bicentenary of Peterloo so successful and engaging.”

To find out more about the Peterloo Memorial Campaign and about the Massacre itself go to https://peterloomassacre.org/history.html

The Annual Luddite Memorial Lecture is free to attend, open to all, and not ticketed. It will be held at the Oastler Building, University of Huddersfield on Monday 29th April at 7:30 pm.

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