In her presentation, Claire Bartram, as editor, will highlight the rich potential of Kent sources to explore writing practices and book collections in early modern society. Thereafter some of the contributors will join her to discuss topics raised by this important volume.

This celebration of the publication in 2020 of Dr Claire Bartram's edited collection entitled Kentish Book Culture: Writers, Archives, Libraries and Sociability 1400-1660 also marks Claire's new position as Co-Director of the Centre for Kent History and Heritage. As Claire will explain in her presentation before inviting other authors to join the discussion, this book draws together new research on literate culture in Kent in one focused volume. Consequently, it brings together studies by social historians, literary specialists and librarians under the umbrella of 'book culture' to investigate the social place of the book as an object to be bought, borrowed, pawned, gifted, collected and displayed. As such, as Claire will demonstrate, this collection highlights the vibrancy of book culture in the south-east of England, in addition to making us think about continuities across the medieval/early modern divide and the value of adopting a regional focus. Such points will be explored in the subsequent discussion, and the celebration will conclude following questions taken from the audience to Claire and her contributors.

To access the event, click this link or copy-and-paste it into your browser: www.tinyurl.com/kentbookculture