Birmingham: The Adventures of Harry Payne – the Edwardian “Literary Tramp”

The Adventures of Harry Payne – the Edwardian “Literary Tramp”

Presenter – Quintin Watt

This presentation will piece together the remarkable story of a partially-sighted vagrant, as he tramped around the British Isles. At each town he visited, Harry earned a few pence by writing a review of that place for the local newspaper.

These perceptive snapshots provide a unique worm’s-eye view of Britain before and during the Great War. They earned Harry the epithet, “Literary Tramp”, and challenge the myth that poor people left no written evidence of their lives and experiences.

Quintin Watt has written several articles for local history magazines and edited two books ‘The Bromsgrove Guild – An Illustrated History’ (1999) and ‘Wolverhampton’s Great War, 1914 to 1921’ (2020)
Quintin taught History at a high school in Bromsgrove for 39 years. He has completed two Masters Degrees, in West Midlands Regional History (1993) and Britain and the First World War (2022).
Quintin served as secretary and chairman of the Bromsgrove Society’s Local History Group and the Wolverhampton Society. He now serves on the Committe of the Black Country Society.