Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist, historian and writer.

She has an MA in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews, a doctorate on the court of Edward III from the University of Oxford and trained as an archivist at UCL. In a career spanning over 25 years, she was Director of the Parliamentary Archives and also a Senior Archivist at the National Archives. Caroline has published widely on historical and archival topics and is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.

Her first popular history book, 'The Day Parliament Burned Down' (OUP, 2012) was a Book of the Year in The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and The Herald Scotland; and was shortlisted for three prizes. In 2013 it won top prize at the Political Book of the Year awards, and was described by Mary Beard as 'microhistory at its absolute best'. In 2016 its sequel 'Mr Barry's War' (OUP) was published, and was a book of the year for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine with Lucy Worsley calling it 'a real jewel'.

Caroline tweets on archives, heritage, public history and other topics @dustshoveller. She is an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society and her third book, 'National Treasures', about the evacuation of heritage collections from London in World War Two, will be published by John Murray in 2021.