Welcome
(photo: Edward Thomas Fellowship)
I am a writer and academic, and you can find out more about my work here, including my most recent book, Peace At Last: A Portrait of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, which was published by Yale University Press in October 2018. Yale University Press also published my biography of Wilfred Owen in 2014, and I am a General Editor of Edward Thomas’s prose for Oxford University Press. I am currently working on a scholarly edition of Edward Thomas’s The Icknield Way and In Pursuit of Spring. In 2018, I gave the British Academy’s Chatterton Lecture on Poetry, choosing Thomas as my subject.
An Associate Professor in English Literature and Head of the School of Humanities at Liverpool Hope University, I live on the Wirral, grew up in the Midlands and studied at St Andrews and Oxford.
‘[a] brilliant portrayal of Britain on the day that peace broke out, when people could believe there was an end to the war to end all wars. He weaves a wonderful tapestry of the mood and events across the country, drawing on a wide range of local and regional newspapers. It is accessible history at its best. […] outstanding’
(Peace At Last, The Evening Standard, 8 November 2018)
—Recent news—
Edward Thomas
- I gave the Chatterton Lecture on Poetry (about Edward Thomas) at the British Academy on 1 November 2018.
- My Chatterton Lecture was published in the Journal of the British Academy.
- The audio of my Chatterton Lecture is available from the British Academy (and on iTunes).
- I discussed my work on Thomas at the Centre for the History of the Book, Edinburgh, 28 February 2020.
- I was due to give a talk at the Edward Thomas Fellowship Study Day on 13 June 2020 but this event has been moved to 2021.
- I will be taking part in the Edward Thomas Literary Festival on 3 October 2020, with a talk on The Icknield Way and as part of a panel on Thomas and Robert Frost.
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Peace at Last
2018:
- I was a studio guest, discussing the Armistice, for the BBC One’s ‘Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph‘.
- For the New Statesman I wrote an article on the Armistice, ‘The Armistice Bacchanal’.
- I wrote the lead feature in The Tablet.
- For the November 2018 issue of BBC History Magazine I wrote an article about the Armistice.
- I gave a talk in Sheffield at the Off the Shelf Festival of Words on 13 October 2018.
- I gave a talk at Gladstone’s Library on 23 October 2018.
- I was interviewed on BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio London.
- I appeared on Granada Reports, talking about the Armistice.
- Peace at Last was included in the Telegraph‘s ‘what to read’ feature on the year’s best history books (‘Christmas Books 2018’).
- Peace at Last was included in ‘Best Books of 2018: History’ in Gulf News.
- I was interviewed for The Liverpool Echo.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in November’s Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in November’s Literary Review.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Spectator.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Evening Standard, as ‘Book of the Week’.
- Peace at Last was published as an audiobook on 12 December 2018.
2019:
- Peace at Last was reviewed in History: Reviews of New Books.
- I gave a lecture at Edinburgh Napier University on 13 October 2019, as the opening event of the Pentlands Book Festival: ‘The Day of Victory’: The War Poets and the Armistice of 1918
2020:
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Historian.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Journal of American History.
- Peace at Last was reviewed in The Journal of British Studies.
- I was interviewed for the podcast Shedunnit for an episode based on my book.
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Wilfred Owen
- I was interviewed on Songs of Praise (4 November 2018).
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Other topics
- I recently appeared on the podcast The Allusionist, episodes 82 and 91.
- I interviewed John Jammes, former member of the French Resistance.
- I was interviewed for the Stromness Books & Prints book blog.
- I wrote a short article about the Tolkien family’s connections with Solihull School.
twitter: guywjc
email: guywjc [at] gmail.com
Book Review: “Peace at Last” reminds us that amid the rejoicing on Armistice Day, there was also terrible sadness https://t.co/bZgHVJjr0z
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 13, 2018
Discover our October favourites! This month we’ve picked #PeaceAtLast by @guywjc and #TheKremlinLetters by David Reynolds and Vladimir Pechatnov. #WW1 #WW2 #ArmisticeDay #Stalin #Churchill and #Roosevelt. Visit our website to find out more https://t.co/kRBM1465ko pic.twitter.com/79miQchswp
— Yale Books (@YaleBooks) October 10, 2018
It was an honour and a pleasure to give the Chatterton Lecture @BritishAcademy_ yesterday evening. Thank you to the British Academy, and to Robert Crawford for chairing it, and to everyone who came along to hear about Edward Thomas. (Photo by Thomas, from SCOLAR @cardiffuni) pic.twitter.com/U1w0zPkKLA
— Guy Cuthbertson (@guywjc) November 2, 2018
#songsofpraise Sunday 4th November 1:45pm @BBCOne & at https://t.co/m5Ic4Nvw8A Professor Guy Cuthbertson tells Aled Jones about Wilfred Owen’s early life in Birkenhead. pic.twitter.com/yUPW6KeW9H
— BBC Songs of Praise (@BBCSoP) November 3, 2018
‘It is accessible history at its best.’ Thank you @EveningStandard ‘Peace at Last’ reviewed by Robert Foxhttps://t.co/tgIaFiMhtm@YaleBooks @yalepress
— Guy Cuthbertson (@guywjc) November 8, 2018
It was an honour to be part of the BBC’s ‘Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph’. Thank you @BBCOne. (The programme is available on iplayer.) https://t.co/IaTqivdcti
— Guy Cuthbertson (@guywjc) November 14, 2018