Dr Amy Wilcockson

My name is Dr Amy Wilcockson and I'm a literary historian. I'm interested in eighteenth and nineteenth century people, culture, history, and literary works.

I'm currently a Research Assistant at the University of Glasgow and I hold a PhD specialising in Romantic period literature from the University of Nottingham. My work has been published in The Times Literary Supplement, History Today Magazine, BBC History Magazine and The Conversation. I've appeared on podcasts, on the radio, and my work has been featured in the national press on numerous occasions. In 2020 I was a TV PhD candidate working with AHRC and the Edinburgh TV Festival, and I was recently shortlisted as an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker for 2025.

I've researched, lectured, worked in museums, delivered public talks and varied events programmes, and much more. I would love to hear from you if you'd like to work with me - please do drop me a message.

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Research

I'm interested in:
Eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, history and culture

The Regency and Romantic periods

Biography and forgotten figures

Correspondence, letters and manuscripts
Scotland and its place in Great Britain

Anniversaries and significant dates in literary history

The ongoing fascination we have with the Regency period, with Jane Austen and with popular poets

How the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are represented in books and on-screen in the twenty-first century

I completed my PhD in 2023, which was an edition of the letters of the neglected Scottish Romantic poet Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). These selected letters will be published with Liverpool University Press in 2026.

Future projects include a month's stay at Chawton House, home of Jane Austen's brother; three months in Edinburgh to work on an important but forgotten literary and political network that were based there in the early nineteenth century; and a biography of Thomas Campbell.

You can view my academic work via Google Scholar here.

Media

One of my proudest research moments was coming across previously unpublished Edward Lear manuscripts. Two of the famous nonsense poet's poems and a letter had escaped notice until I discovered them in the British Library's holdings.

This research was published in the Times Literary Supplement, which led to appearances on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, on BBC News Online, The Times, Daily Mail, The Daily Express, and other news outlets. Press coverage was valued at £3.5 million.

You can view the Lear press release and various public talks below: