Narratives Seminar Series: Finding Billy Waters: Or, Black Sailors in the Regency Navy

5th Feb 2025 5:30pm - 7pm

Multiple locations Campus

SL006, Stephen Lawrence Building, Park Row, Old Royal Naval College, SE10 9LS

The Centre for Research in Language and Heritage (CREL) is delighted to welcome Dr. Mary Shannon from the University of Roehampton who brings the next instalment of the CREL Narratives Seminar Series.

Abstract

William ‘Billy’ Waters: busker, sailor, immigrant, father, lover, extraordinary talent, and a forgotten Black celebrity from Regency London. Delve into Waters’ life in the British Navy and his subsequent life as a disabled sailor, as we explore the opportunities and challenges of being a Black man in the Napoleonic navy, and how this helped Waters to find fame on the Regency stage and page.

Bio                                                                                                                        

Dr Mary L. Shannon is a writer and Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Roehampton, London. Her new book Billy Waters is Dancing: Or, How a Black Sailor Found Fame in Regency Britain (funded by a Leverhulme and a Linda H. Peterson Fellowship) is published by Yale (2024). She's the author of the award-winning Dickens, Reynolds, and Mayhew on Wellington Street and a self-confessed fan of Napoleonic navy fiction. She studied at Cambridge and KCL.

Find her at marylshannon.com, @marylshannon (twitter), @drmarylshannon (Instagram and BlueSky)

This event is Hybrid  - Join the meeting online HERE or register below to attend in person

BOOKING REQUIRED

Book to Attend In Person