'Migrants and Tall Stories': Writing Common People Seminar

Alison Light will talk about her recent book, Common People: the History of an English Family which used her own family history to follow the lives of the migrant, working poor. A mix of memoir, social history and reflection, the book raises question about the limits and possibilities of family history as a form and the ways in which we see the English and Englishness. Common People was shortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize.

Alison Light is a writer and Honorary Professor of English at University College London. Her previous books include the highly acclaimed Mrs Woolf and the Servants (2008), an exploration of the world of domestic service.