High praise for Jackie’s new book

The launch of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary, the latest book by Jacqueline Mulhallen, has been held at the Wisbech Museum.

The book has already received international praise from scholars and poets, including Benjamin Zephaniah, who said: “The world needs more Shelley, the world needs this book.”

Jackie said: “I am delighted Wisbech Museum is hosting this event because of its links with anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson.

“Shelley was involved in the anti-slavery campaign as a teenager in Horsham and Wisbech is the birthplace of William Godwin, who also influenced Shelley.”

Earlier this month, the Bodeian Library announced it had acquired a poem written by Shelley in 1811, when only 18.

Shelley wrote it to support a journalist who had been sent to prison for exposing military incompetence which sent 20,000 men to their deaths in fever-ridden marshes and achieved no military objective.

The book launch takes place tonight at 7pm.