Achieved interview at Oxford University, offers from
Durham, UCL, Bristol, Edinburgh
In my hometown, history is not just in books. It is on the
lips of local councillors and hotly debated amongst locals.
It is a statue of a Welshman who fled poverty to make his
name in America. Denbigh is the birthplace of John
Rowlands, better known as Henry Morton Stanley.
Although long dead, he still divides opinion and his statue
has been vilified by Black Lives Matter protestors due to
slave trade links. The council will be holding a vote on
the future of his statue, the impact of the movement
reverberating all the way to our small town. History
matters, and forever changes as we look at it through new
eyes. Coming from a one parent family and gaining a full
bursary to study at -redacted- School has shaped the way
I see the world. History should not just be written by the
victors, the powerful or the rich. It is not about
monuments to the past or attempting to avoid the
mistakes of our predecessors; it offers an insight into how
society has been formed.
In ‘The Great Cat Massacre’, Robert Darnton’s approach
to uncovering the ‘mentalites’ of those in a foreign
culture, fascinated me. To understand the thought
processes of a culture so different to our own he delves