Dr Caroline Shenton is a prize winning author, archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives.  Passionate about history and heritage, Caroline loves giving talks to groups and is a highly-rated Arts Society lecturer. You may have seen her at the Hay and Cheltenham festivals, heard her on BBC Radio 4, or watched her on BBC Four, the Discovery Channel and BBC Parliament. 

Her first popular history book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘microhistory at its absolute best’ while Dan Jones considered it ‘glorious’. Its highly-acclaimed sequel, Mr Barry's War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as ‘a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful’.

Caroline teaches Public History to postgraduates at the Centre for Archives and Information Studies at the University of Dundee, and during 2017 was a Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.

Her third book, National Treasures, about the evacuation of London’s galleries and museums in the Second World War, will be published by John Murray in November.

Caroline is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and is a regular speaker at many theatres and arts centres around the country. She has wide experience of lecturing to adult audiences and offers a range of lecture topics with stunning digital slides. Caroline can also lecture for your adult education group, club or society.

• The Day Parliament Burned Down
• JMW Turner and the Day Parliament Burned Down
• Mr Barry’s War: Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament
• Packing Up the Nation
• Votes for Women! Art and the Suffragettes
• Magna Carta in Art

If you would like to book Caroline for a lecture or talk, please contact GSP using the contact form below.