Made In Lancashire

At the height of the Victorian gold rush, between July 1852 and June 1853, hundreds of government-assisted migrants from Lancashire, England, made their way to Australia and disembarked in Victoria. They were part of a huge flood of such migrants who were poured into the new-born colony as the colonial administration scrabbled to cope with the gold rush. The scheme was an unprecedented achievement in government-organised migration. Yet most historians have tended to dismiss these assisted migrants as the unskilled poorest-of-the-poor, and not of the same calibre as the working-class and middle-class unassisted migrants also arriving at the colony in great numbers. Made in Lancashire is a collective biography that explores in detail who the Lancashire assisted migrants were, their origins, why they migrated, where they went on arrival in Victoria, and what they made of their lives. Far from being the dross of England, these migrants were intelligent, highly motivated risktakers, many of whom went on to experience success as gold diggers, selectors, tradespeople and entrepreneurs.

Presents a new perspective on the Industrial Revolution providing far more than just an account of industrial change. Looks at the development of the economic structures and includes chapters on financing the revolution, technological change, markets and demand, transport and food. The final section looks at economic change and its impact and includes chapters on demography, the household, families, authority and regulation, and the built environment. Providing a complete summary of the various debates in the literature on this period, making a strong case for re-introducing a regional approach to the history of the age.

Asian industrial competition, from Japan, China but also India, attracted greater public attention in Europe during the inter-war period than ever before. Indian industrial employment became the subject not only of extensive official enquiries, intensified legislation, a growing number of academic studies and of more popular writings, but also of debates within and between European trade unions.

Anarchy in the kitchen is a book I intended to write. I didn’t walk into a lamp post one morning and thought “fuck me I need to write a book”. My culinary journey spanning three decades was always going to be written. The carnage, the chaos, a chef with no filter. Anarchist in the kitchen, an enigma in yesterday’s culinary world. A psychedelic, hedonistic, vicious, emotional and passionate journey. Incomprehensible, unpredictable, Auguste Knuckles takes the reader on a demolition derby covering numerous avenues of the hospitality industry. A blinding and destructive obsession for his craft. A victim of child abuse and neglect, from a young age Knuckles struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. Powerless to escape the noxious scuttlebutt, Knuckles strives to move forward to achieve his career goal. Executive head chef within a prestigious 5* hotel with Michelin star status. Suffering with CPTSD, suicidal thoughts, OCD and a tsunami of professional issues. After three decades as a chef, Knuckles throws in the towel. Even after being announced as the next heavy weight champion of the world by George Foreman, it’s time to walk away from an obsessive and destructive love affair with the kitchen.