This week’s Campus Celebrity is third year History student Conor Byrne. Since first year, Conor has stood out in the History department as a budding scholar; not only has he contributed countless articles to the university journal The Historian, of which he is now co-editor, he also has his own blog, which has received more than 120,000 hits worldwide. Even more impressively, he has written and published an entire book on Katherine Howard – the fifth and often overlooked wife of Henry VIII – which has become an amazon best-seller. Her Campus caught up with Conor to see how he has managed this scholarly success.
How does it feel to be an amazon best-seller?
It feels amazing, quite surreal. It’s what everyone who writes a book dreams about. For it to do so well so quickly was a great feeling. I’m just hoping people continue to buy it and enjoy reading it. I hope it challenges them to reconsider what they think they know.
Tell us a bit about your book?
It’s a biography of Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII. There are very few biographies about her, both because there are very few sources about her and because her life was so short. My book recognises the importance of gender and sexuality to understanding any woman who lived in the past. This has not often been given prime place in historical studies, but I feel that it should. If anything it reveals the levels of agency and power available to women at a time of relative marginalisation in society.
How long have you had a passion for History?
Since I was eleven, and I’m proud to admit that it all started with the TV series The Tudors! I’ve always been fascinated by Henry VIII and his six wives, and although I now have many historical interests and passions, that one comes first.
Do you have any future books plans?
I do have some ideas but I’m thinking of waiting until postgraduate study.
How do you balance third year work with your writing?
I’m not writing another book at the minute because of the level of work in final year. I don’t think it would be wise to write something else now! But I do have a blog and I update it when I can. I conducted a lot of research during university holidays when there wasn’t the pressure of uni deadlines.
Do you have any plans after University?
I’d like to do a Masters and see what happens from there. I’m intending to continue pursuing women’s histories, researching their lives which continue to be hidden from view. Even if we do have evidence about them, sadly it can often be misunderstood and misinterpreted.
http://conorbyrnex.wordpress.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Katherine-Howard-A-New-History/dp/8493746460