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Prof Mary Chamberlain was a pioneer of oral history. Fenwomen: Portrait of women in an English village, published in 1975, was the first publication from Virago Press, and an inspiration for Caryl Churchill’s award winning play, Fen. She has published six historical monographs on women’s history and Caribbean history utilising oral history and pioneering family dimensions into a study of migration.
She is Emeritus Professor of Caribbean history at Oxford Brookes University, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has served on government, advisory, research and editorial committees. The internationally best-selling author of two novels, The Dressmaker of Dachau and The Hidden, and her third novel, The Forgotten, has recently been published.
“I am thrilled, excited and hugely honoured to be awarded this degree by the University of East Anglia. I cut my professional teeth in the region, and have loved it ever since. This is a real accolade and came as a complete surprise to me so is all the sweeter for it. Thank you.”