Tamsin Spargo – författare

Questions about how and why we read the past continue to demand the attention of cultural critics. Reading the Past introduces key debates about history, historiography, and historicism which have transformed approaches to the past in departments of History and Literature. It includes influential and provocative theoretical essays as well as lively case studies and readings by literary critics and historians. The emphasis is on providing teachers and students with accessible yet challenging material to stimulate debate.

John Bunyan (1628-88) lived and wrote through some of the most turbulent years of political, social, and religious change in British history from civil war, through Commonwealth and Protectorate to the Restoration. Imprisoned for unlicensed preaching as a Nonconformist, Bunyan turned to writing to sustain his pastoral mission and composed some of the best-known, and most critically acclaimed, seventeenth-century texts, from his intensely moving spiritual autobiography, Grace bounding to the Chief of Sinners, to the world famous allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan’s style fused vivid depiction of the everyday world of ordinary men and women with powerful narratives to dramatise his religious convictions. This accessible study of his life, times, and writing introduces all his key works within the contexts of their original moment and later international impact and argues that Bunyan is a writer whose work continues to reward readers of all ages, beliefs, and nationalities.

Late one September night in 1891 a man boarded the American Express train as it sped through New York State. Wearing a red hood with slots for him to see through, his eyes flashed. 'It's money I'm after,' he shouted, pointing two guns at the guard. Grabbing a fortune in cash, he then apparently dropped through the floor and vanished without a trace. His name was Oliver Curtis Perry and he became the country's most wanted man. While detectives searched in vain, the public couldn't get enough of the charismatic young robber. Women adored him and boys worshipped him. Five months later, he robbed the same train again, and only after an extraordinary chase was he caught. But if the authorities believed they had beaten this celebrity criminal they were mistaken. Perry's prison life proved as remarkable as his robberies as he turned escape-artist, protester, hunger striker and finally poet in his determination to win his freedom. In this unusual portrait of the Wild West gone east, Tamsin Spargo brings an irresistible and romantic anti-hero to life.

First published in 1997, this volume is an attempt to prise open the name of John Bunyan. It aims to examine the operations of that name, to explore the discursive techniques which produced the figure of this author, both in the seventeenth century and later, and to identify the different meanings which have been ascribed to it in the history of its production. It may be read as a ‘Dear John’ letter to the author, or as an exercise in cultural materialism which examines the production and reproduction of a particular figure of authority, the author, within specific cultural formations at different historical moments.