Patrick Wright is a British writer, broadcaster and academic in the fields of

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

and

cultural history Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political milieu of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) helped found cultural history ...

. He was educated at the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

and

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

in British Columbia, Canada. He is Professor (emeritus) of Literature, History and Politics at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, having previously worked at the Institute of Cultural Analysis of

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university located in Nottingham, England. Its origins date back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Design, Nottingham Government School of Design, which still opera ...

, and as a fellow of the London Consortium. In the 1980s he worked for the

National Council for Voluntary Organisations The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector in England. It is a registered charity (no. 225922). It works to support the voluntary and community sector and to create an en ...

in London, and was self-employed as a writer, broadcaster and occasional consultant between 1987 and 2000. He has written for many journals and newspapers, including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', where he was a contracted feature writer in the early 1990s. More recently, he has held a Mellon Fellowship at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

and, together with Timothy Hyman, curated a major

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE Royal Academy of Arts, RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if ...

exhibition. He presented a

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

series ''The River'', about the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

, in 1999. Patrick Wright is a former presenter of Radio 3's arts programme '' Night Waves''. He is also known for his work on British heritage. He is the author of several books, many of which explore themes connected to England and Englishness,

Psychogeography Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutionar ...

and cultural history, including ''The Village That Died for England'' and ''A Journey through Ruins: The Last Days of London''. His latest book, ''The Sea View Has Me Again: Uwe Johnson in Sheerness'', explores the East German writer

Uwe Johnson Uwe Johnson (; 20 July 1934 – 22 February 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. Duri ...

and his unexpected residence on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

between 1974 and his death in 1984, taking his appreciation of "backwaters" as the basis for a consideration of deindustrialisation and its more recent consequences in England and elsewhere. It is published in December 2020 by

Repeater Books Repeater Books is a publishing imprint based in London, founded in 2014 by Tariq Goddard and Mark Fisher, formerly the founders of radical publishers Zero Books, along with Etan Ilfeld, Tamar Shlaim, Alex Niven and Matteo Mandarini. It was lau ...

Bibliography

*''On Living in an Old Country'' (1985; revised and augmented edition 2009) *''A Journey through Ruins: The Last Days of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

'' (1991; revised and augmented edition 2009) *''The Village That Died for England'' (about

Tyneham Tyneham is a ghost town, ghost village abandoned in 1943 and former civil parish, now in the parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Dorset (district), Dorset district, in the south of Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. In 2001 ...

; 1995; revised and augmented edition 2002) *''The River: The Thames in Our Time'' (1999) *'' Tank: The Progress of a Monstrous War Machine'' (2000) *''Stanley Spencer'' (2001) with Timothy Hyman *''Iron Curtain: From Stage to Cold War'' (2007) () *''Passport to Peking: A Very British Mission to Mao's China'' (2010) () *''The Sea View Has Me Again: Uwe Johnson in Sheerness'' (2020,

) ()

References

External links

Official Home Page2010 interview
Academics of Nottingham Trent University British historians British writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academics of King's College London British broadcasters Alumni of the University of Kent Simon Fraser University alumni The Guardian journalists {{UK-historian-stub