In his new book, Brightening from the East, writer and social historian Ken Worpole explored a unique ‘region of the mind’ – the Thames Estuary, the marshland landscapes of the East Anglian shoreline, and the Quaker and Anglican strongholds of the Essex interior – where Essex has been fertile soil for a rich variety of radical and religious settlements, ‘the Thaxted experiment’ being the most well-known. In his talk the author focused on the powerful mix of East End political radicalism, the English Folk Revival, and the Christian ‘leavening’ of rural Essex, which all combined to produce some of the most remarkable episodes in the history of social reform in 20th century, a number of which were discussed in greater detail.

Ken is the author of several books, most recently No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain (2021), New Jerusalem: the good city and the good society (2015) and Contemporary Library Architecture: a planning and design guide(2013).