This talk will concentrate on Joseph Chamberlain’s unique achievement in Birmingham. By turns he was a hugely successful businessman, a reforming educator – of children, working men and students – a charismatic, dynamic municipal leader, and the founder of a formidable and irresistible political base in Birmingham, while making it ‘the best governed city in the world.’ Birmingham shaped Chamberlain, it rewarded him with 30 years of unquestioning loyalty, and he in turn had huge pride in and affection for the city he had made so important in British politics.  

Andrew Reekes was appointed Writer-in-Residence in September 2023, and was educated at King’s School Worcester & Exeter College, Oxford, and has spent a lifetime in education, leading History departments, being Principal of Arnold Lodge School & ending his career as Sub-Warden of Radley College. He was also a Chief Examiner and a long-standing school inspector.

In retirement Andrew has returned to his first love, History, studying for a research degree under Malcolm Dick at the University of Birmingham, & writing for History West Midlands. He has written eight books, including The Birmingham Political Machine, a comparative biography on Joseph Chamberlain and George Cadbury (Two Titans) and George Dawson and his Circle (with Stephen Roberts). His latest book, Reporting Birmingham, 250 years of Birmingham’s newspapers is due for publication in Spring 2024.

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