Michael Hugh Taylor (born 6 December 1988) is an Irish historian and a former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who played for

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class cricket, first-class status until 2020. The university played ...

from 2008 to 2014. Following his academic studies in history, Taylor has written two popular books on aspects of nineteenth-century history, and contributed to public debate on Britain's role in slavery.

Education

Born at

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, Taylor studied at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

from 2007 to 2015. He was a student at Gonville and Caius College, where he studied for a B.A., an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. Taylor's PhD thesis titled ''The defence of British Colonial Slavery, 1823-33'', was awarded in 2015. As a student, Taylor played cricket for

, from 2008 to 2014. He earned a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

for cricket in 2010, by representing Cambridge in the annual Oxford-Cambridge cricket matches. He was also a member of the Gonville and Caius team that won the televised quiz competition,

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

, in 2015.

Career

After completing his doctoral studies, Taylor was a lecturer in Modern British History at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, and a Visiting Fellow at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

's Eccles Centre for American Studies. In 2018, he reached the final of

Mastermind Mastermind, Master Mind or The Mastermind may refer to: Fictional characters * Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), a fictional supervillain in Marvel Comics, a title also held by his daughters: ** Martinique Jason, the first daughter and successor of the ...

, a televised quiz show. Taylor has published three books. His first was ''An Independent Empire: Diplomacy & War in the Making of the United States'' published in 2020 with political scientist Michael S. Kochin. His second, also published in 2020, was ''The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery''. This book was shortlisted for the

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are award ...

in political writing in 2021. In March 2024, he published his third book, ''Impossible Monsters''. This is a popular history of the arguments about science and religion that followed the discoveries of fossilised bones and skeletons of primordial creatures, including ''

Plesiosaurus ''Plesiosaurus'' (Greek: ' ('), near to + ' ('), lizard) is a genus of extinct, large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the Early Jurassic. It is known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England. It is distinguishable by ...

'', ''

Megalosaurus ''Megalosaurus'' (meaning "great lizard", from Ancient Greek, Greek , ', meaning 'big', 'tall' or 'great' and , ', meaning 'lizard') is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic Epoch (Bathonian stage, 166 ...

'' and ''

Dimorphodon ''Dimorphodon'' ( ) is a genus of medium-sized pterosaur from Europe during the early Jurassic Period (about 201-191 million years ago).Müller R.T., Ezcurra M.D., Garcia M.S., Agnolín F.L., Stocker M.R., Novas F.E., Soares M.B., Kellner A.W.A. ...

'', during the early 19th century. Taylor works for

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a Multinational corporation, multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Fo ...

, as a senior manager in their indirect tax disputes section.

Published books

Academic

* Kochin, Michael S, and Taylor, Michael (2020) ''An Independent Empire: Diplomacy & War in the Making of the United States'', University of Michigan Press,

Trade books

*Taylor, Michael (2020) ''The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery'',

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random ...

, 400 pp. *Taylor, Michael (2024) ''Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War Between Science and Religion'', The Bodley Head, 496pp.

References

External links

*
Michael Taylor's Amazon Author page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Michael 1988 births Living people Cricketers from County Antrim Sportspeople from Ballymena Cambridge University cricketers Cambridge MCCU cricketers Irish cricketers 21st-century historians from Northern Ireland Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge