Welcome to The Lichfield Rambler.
My newsletter pays homage to the great Samuel Johnson (pictured second from left), who wrote a series of papers called The Rambler, which were published on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 1750 to 1752. They covered all manner of topics ranging from morality and literature to society and politics.
The Lichfield Rambler zings into your inbox 2-3 times a month (on Sundays) and provides articles on the arts (painting, music, literature, architecture) - with a historical slant. I also write book reviews and essays about the publishing journey for people who write non-fiction. For full access to the newsletter and publication archives, please subscribe - it’s completely free!
About the Author
Dr Annette Rubery is an independent scholar, editor and historian. After graduating from the University of Warwick with a PhD in American art and literature, she went into newspaper journalism, where she worked as an editor on the free daily, Metro. After a decade in newspapers, she worked for several UK universities as a communications professional.
She began her publishing career with The History Press, who brought out her first book, Lichfield Then & Now, in 2012. Since then, she has completed a biography of an 18th-century actress (The Female Rake: Peg Woffington’s Scandalous Life on the Georgian Stage) and begun another book about Sir John Vanbrugh and his circle.
Annette’s writing has been recognised in several competitions. An essay she wrote about Peg Woffington’s travesty performances won the Society for Theatre Research’s New Scholar’s Prize in 2020, and The Female Rake was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize in 2022.
Over the years she has given talks at various locations including Yale University in the United States; the National University of Ireland, Galway; and St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Annette is both a member of The Biographers’ Club and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
In her spare time, she enjoys cat-wrangling, drawing and visiting the opera with her husband, Richard.
