Susan Whyman's latest book tells the story of William Hutton, a self-taught workman who rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution in the rapidly-expanding city of Birmingham. This book brings to life a cast of 'rough diamonds', people of worth and character, but lacking in manners and education, who improved their towns and themselves.

William Hutton (1723-1815) was a poet and the first significant historian of Birmingham, England. In 1756 he opened a paper warehouse, the first in Birmingham, which became profitable. He built a country house on Bennetts Hill in Washwood Heath, and bought a house in High Street. He published History of Birmingham in 1782 and was also elected as Fellow of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland (F. A. S. S.). His houses were destroyed in the Birmingham Riots in 1791 (the Priestley Riots) leading to his historical account in Narrative of the Riots. In 1801 he is generally held to be the first person in modern times to walk the entire length of Hadrian's Wall, producing an account of his journey in The History of the Roman Wall (1813). He completed his autobiography The life of William Hutton (1816) just before his death. His other works include The Barbers (1793), Edgar and Elfrida; or, The Power of Beauty (1793), Courts of Requests (1787), Poems: Chiefly Tales (1804), The Battle of Bosworth Field (1813) and The History of Derby (1817).

This series concentrates on women and the soldiers in the ranks whose lives they shared, assembling a wide body of evidence of their romantic entanglements and domestic concerns. The new military history of recent decades has demanded a broadening of the source base beyond elite accounts or those that concentrate solely on battlefield experiences. Armies did not operate in isolation, and men's family ties influenced the course of events in a variety of ways. Campfollowing women and children occupied a liminal space in campaign life. Those who travelled "on the strength" of the army received rations in return for providing services such as laundry and nursing, but they could also be grouped with prostitutes and condemned as a 'burden' by officers. Parents, wives, and offspring left behind at home remained in soldiers' thoughts, despite an army culture aimed at replacing kin with regimental ties. Soldiers' families' suffering, both on the march and back in Britain, attracted public attention at key points in this period as well. This series provides, for the first time in one place, a wide body of texts relating to common soldiers' personal lives: the women with whom they became involved, their children, and the families who cared for them. It brings hitherto unpublished material into print for the first time, and resurrects accounts that have not been in wide circulation since the nineteenth century. The collection combines the observations of officers, government officials and others with memoirs and letters from men in the ranks, and from the women themselves. It draws extensively on press accounts, especially in the nineteenth century. It also demonstrates the value of using literary depictions alongside the letters, diaries, memoirs and war office papers that form the traditional source base of military historians.