Professor Jeremy Krikler

Department of History, University of Essex

Professor Krikler took his Honours degree at the University of Cape Town and his doctorate at Oxford. Research into the South African rural world led to Revolution from Above, Rebellion from Below, a book on agrarian struggle and transformation in that country. Publications after that focused on racial fears and violence, and the history of the white working class in South Africa. These studies culminated in the publication of White Rising (published in paperback as The Rand Revolt).. Professor Krikler then turned to work on the British slave trade with a special focus on the notorious slave ship Zong. The research and articles on this fed into a wholly new dimension to his work: the translation of historical research into dramatic and creative form. This led to the  production and publication of his play, 'A Peril of the Sea'.  His present project is a book, commissioned by Penguin/Random House, reinterpreting  that key colonial conflict, the South African (or 'Boer') War of 1899-1902.