author
William Hutton
1723–1815
A self-made bookseller who turned a hard childhood into a life of writing, he became the first major historian of Birmingham. His lively histories and memoirs capture the energy of an English town changing fast in the age of industry.
1 Audiobook
An History of Birmingham (1783)
by William Hutton
About the author
Born in Derby in 1723, William Hutton grew up in poverty and had little formal schooling. After difficult early years of work and apprenticeship, he built a successful career in Birmingham as a bookseller and paper merchant.
Writing was not his original profession, which makes his achievement all the more striking. He went on to become the first significant historian of Birmingham, and his History of Birmingham helped preserve the story of a city being transformed by trade, manufacturing, and everyday civic life.
Hutton also wrote poetry, travel accounts, and autobiographical work. Readers often value him not just for dates and facts, but for the sharp, personal way he observed the world around him, making his books feel close to the life of eighteenth-century England.