Jump to content

Alice Loxton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Loxton at Hatchard's Piccadilly with her first book, UPROAR!

Alice Loxton is a historian, bestselling author, and broadcaster. She has over three million followers across social media (@history_alice) where she shares educational videos about history, heritage and art.

Career

[edit]

During 2019-2023, Loxton was a presenter, producer and scriptwriter at the History Hit television channel, creating documentaries about historic British locations such as the Roman Baths, Salisbury Cathedral, Sissinghurst, Wells Cathedral, and many others.

Her first book, UPROAR! Satire, Scandal and Printmakers in Georgian London, explored the lives of notable Georgian satirists, James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson and Isaac Cruikshank. It was described as "splendid and wonderfully readable" by The Guardian.

Her second book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller and winner of Blackwell's Book of the Year 2024. It explored the lives of notable 18-year-olds in history, including studies of the teenage years of Bede, Geoffrey Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth I, Jacques Francis, Jeffrey Hudson, Horatio Nelson, Sarah Biffin, Mary Anning, Richard Burton and Vivienne Westwood.[1]

Loxton has appeared as a presenter on BBC, History Hit, Sky, Channel 5, and writes book reviews and comment for newspapers, including The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

She has worked with many different organisations to bring history to new audiences, including 10 Downing Street, The National Gallery, The Royal Academy, The King's Foundation, Tate, The National Portrait Gallery, The National Trust, English Heritage, Microsoft, and Meta.

In 2024, Loxton helped set up the History Extra 30 Under 30 Competition.

In 2023 Loxton hosted 'Lessons at 10' at 10 Downing Street.

In January 2025, she had over three million followers across social media, with the handle @history_alice.

Publications

[edit]
  • Uproar!: Satire, Scandal and Printmakers in Georgian London (Icon Books, 2023)
  • Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives (Pan Macmillan, 2024)

Honours

[edit]

In November 2024, Loxton's Eighteen, a study of eighteen historical figures at the age of eighteen, gained the Blackwell's Book of the Year Award for 2024. A Blackwell's representative commented: "Playful but authoritative history is a genre which Alice Loxton is speedily making her own."[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives", The National Archives, accessed 29 November 2024
  2. ^ Melina Spanoudi, "Historian Alice Loxton's Eighteen crowned Blackwell’s Book of the Year 2024", The Bookseller, 21 November 2024, accessed 29 November 2024
[edit]