Waterstones Liverpool Welcomes Historian Ben Shaw

Historian Ben Shaw discusses his book on Bryan Blundell, a Liverpool philanthropist whose fortune was tied to the slave trade.

Author and historian Ben Shaw visits Waterstones Liverpool to discuss his book The Slave Trader - The Story of Bryan Blundell, Mariner, Philanthropist and Slave Trader. The book traces Blundell's rise from cabin boy to captain, merchant, philanthropist and twice mayor of Liverpool, founder of the Blue Coat School, while examining how his fortune was bound to the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on Blundell's own journal, shipping records, sermons and civic archives, the talk explores ambition, faith and contradiction in the city's history.