Sean Creighton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History and Social Action Publications

I started History & Social Action publications as a series of photocopied pamphlets and newsletters and email newsletters. I have now turned it into a publishing imprint with its own ISBN number. The main aim is to publish pamphlets on behalf of organisations. To-date I have published:

·         Penelope Corfiled. Vauxhall and the Invention of the Urban Pleasure Gardens

·         Bill Miller. Black Labour Party Activist in Plymouth by Jonathan Wood, for Labour Heritage

·         Mother Seacole. A short story by Jason Young

·         Learning about Community by Peter Kuenstler, for Oxford House.

Vauxhall and the Invention of the Urban Pleasure Gardens by Penelope Corfield

Vauxhall Gardens is a name that conjures the pleasures of big city life. It reminds us that great towns provide opportunities for communal festivities and concord, as well as the often-stressed potential for urban problems and conflict. This study explains how Vauxhall emerged as the brand-leader of the urban pleasure garden, from among the ranks of sixty or more rival gardens in post-Restoration London. Vauxhall became fashionable; it was popular; it was brilliantly organised; it was musical; it was entertaining; it had fireworks; it was a meeting place for lovers… it had it all. But the continuing transformations of London brought changes. Vauxhall did not endure for ever. While the new Oval Cricket. Ground managed to survive in nearby south London, Vauxhall’s Pleasure Gardens disappeared. It took more than fame and, later, nostalgia to keep a front-rank leisure amenity going on the south bank. By studying Vauxhall’s rise and fall, we can understand the upheavals of the entertainment sector in the ‘modern’ city – and appreciate the message of Vauxhall’s legend. Penelope J. Corfield is Professor of History at Royal Holloway. University of London. Last year she published Time and the Shape of History (Yale University Press, 2007), on ‘big history’ from start to finish. But she also keeps her research feet on the ground, with studies of the social, cultural, and urban history of Georgian and Victorian Britain. ISBN 978-0-9548943-3-7. £5

Bill Miller. Black Labour Party Activist in Plymouth by Jonathan Wood, for Labour Heritage

Jonathan Wood tells the illuminating life story of William (Bill) Miller, the son of a black Sierra Leonean and an English woman who grew up to become one of Plymouth Labour Party’s leading members and Councillors from the early 1920s to his death in 1970, and a key figure in the post-war reconstruction of Plymouth. He worked at the Naval Dockyard and was active in his trade union the Electrical Trades Union. A measure of the man is shown by his unofficial organisation of the evacuation of women and children from the City in 1941. He was arrested. A few days after his reprimand in court the authorities ordered a total evacuation of women and children.
ISBN 0954894324. £3

Mother Seacole. A short story by Jason Young

‘Jason Young has beautifully captured the well-recognised maternal feelings that Mary Seacole had towards her beloved British soldiers during the Crimean War.’ Professor Elizabeth N Anionwu, Head of the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at Thames Valley University. She is a leading supporter of the activities to commemorate the 2005 200th Anniversary of the birth of Mary Seacole, the pioneering black nurse and heroine of the War.

The story is set in the Crimea where Mary Seacole ran the British Hotel near Balaclava providing 'a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers'.
Jason Young the author is a published writer of historical fiction, who has worked for a number of media and publishing companies. He is the founder and president of the Tooting and Balham Writers’ Circle.
The story was launched at a Lambeth Riverside Festival event on Saturday 23 July 2005.
ISBN 0954894316. £2

Learning about Community by Peter Kuenstler, for Oxford House

In association with Oxford House and the Settlements & Social Action Research Group.

Peter Kuenstler describes his experiences of working at Oxford House in Bethnal Green during the Second World War and in the immediate post-war period. Under the leadership of Guy Clutton-Brock Oxford House provided much needed social and community work support services to local people, especially families with children and young people. It played its role as a bomb shelter and aid station. With the experience he gained at Oxford House Peter went into a career in youth and community work at the international level.

Peter was born in Hampstead in London in December 1919. He was educated at the Hall School 1926-1933, at Rugby School (classical scholarship) 1933-38, at Oriel College, Oxford (classical scholarship) 1938-40, and at Oxford House 1940-1948.

From 1948 to 1955 he was Research Fellow in Youth Work in the Institute of Education at Bristol University, during which time he was Director of Youth work training courses at the International People's College, Elsinore, Denmark, Consultant to British and American authorities in Germany, and a Consultant to the Governor of Uganda Protectorate (1953). From 1955 to 1964 he was Secretary of the African Development Trust in London, also lecturing part-time at the London School of Economics, and at Barnett House, the Department of Social and Administrative Studies at Oxford University. He also acted as UN Adviser on community development to the Government of Greece, and as Director of a course for Youth Officials from anglophone African countries for the German Foundation for Developing Countries, West Berlin.

From 1964 to 1979 Peter was a Social Affairs Officer, United Nations. This involved him in being Interregional adviser on Youth (1965-7), Interagency Youth Liaison Officer (1967 to 1979) and Adviser to the Government of Botswana on youth and community development (1973-75).

In 1980 he was Visiting Professor at the School of Advanced Social Studies, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, in the United States, before becoming Secretary of a working party at the Gulbenkian Foundation, London (1980-82).

From 1982 to 1993 he was a Director of the Centre for Employment Initiatives (London and Brussels). Projects included organisation for the European Commission of over 30 consultations in different countries; and also evaluations of the Danish Volunteer Service and of British VSO.

In his last working years he led advisory missions to Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria for EC from 1993 to 1996, and was Team leader for a World Bank mission on Social Welfare in Macedonia.

Peter has an M.A. from Oxford University, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague in the Netherlands. Faber & Faber published two books edited by him: ‘Social Group Work in Great Britain’ (1955), and ‘Community Organisation in Great Britain’ (1961).

In 1962 Peter married Nona (Antonia) Moissiadou. He has a son Paul, and two grandsons Nicholas and Henry. Peter and Nona live in Athens.

• The pamphlet was launched at an event in October 2004 at Oxford House as part of its celebration of its 120th Anniversary.
For local press coverage of the event and his pamphlet and for the info-educ site’s explanation of Peter’s importance in the development of youth work do a Google search “Peter Kuenstler”.
ISBN 0954894308. £5.

TO ORDER

To order email sean.creighton@btinternet.com . The items will be sent with postage & packing added. Alternatively send a cheque made payable to ‘Sean Creighton’ to 18 Ridge Rd, Mitcham, CR4 2ET. Add 25p per item for post & packaging.