The Book
This book provides an edition of the diary of Edward Watkin in his twenties. It describes his public and private life in Manchester in the 1840s when he was busy campaigning for the Anti Corn Law League, arranging soirees for the Athenaeum to which Dickens and Disraeli were invited, and campaigning successfully for three public parks in Manchester. He worked with many of the prominent figures in the city. The diary also covers Watkin’s early days in railway management. Later he was to become chairman of three major British railway companies as well as president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
The Author
David Hodgkins studied history at Cambridge specialising in the development of the British economy in the first half of the nineteenth century. He then entered the Ministry of Labour and was an under secretary in the Department of Employment and Health and Safety Executive, 1976-94. His previous historical publications have included The Second Railway King: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Watkin, 1819-1901 and an edition of the Records of the Cromford and High Peak Railway Company as well as numerous articles on transport history.