New Professor Heads English and History

Edge Hill University welcomes the appointment of Professor Linden Peach as Head of its English and History department.

The eminent Professor, aged 56 originally from Wales, left Northumbria University where he was Dean of Arts and Social Sciences to take up the post at Edge Hill.

His illustrious career has taken him to Goldsmiths College and Loughborough University after starting in the further education sector much closer to Edge Hill at Skelmersdale College. In the late 1970s the college was viewed as a place of innovation for adult learning. Later whilst at Goldsmiths College, Professor Peach played his own part in pioneering study for adults when he introduced part-time degree programmes for adult learners and developed the first access courses to higher education at London University.

After a period as Head of English and Inter-arts at Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds- then one of the best known arts colleges in the country, Professor Peach joined Loughborough University as a Reader in Contemporary Literature where he was promoted to personal chair and a professorial title confirmed by three subsequent universities.

Professor Peach is the author of ten books and numerous essays on 20th century and contemporary writing. He is well known for research on the writings of Virginia Woolf, the representation of crime in English literature, and contemporary Welsh and Irish women's literature. He has been twice honoured by the Toni Morrison Society, University of Georgia, for his work on the Nobel Prize winning African American novelist.

As a Welsh national Professor Peach was awarded an Honorary Research Fellowship by the University of Wales for his contribution to Welsh literature.

"I am really excited about getting back to working with students and contributing to the development of research here," said Professor Peach. "I was aware of Edge Hill's reputation in English and history and I am passionate about the arts and its contribution to social and cultural development. There is some fantastic work going on here and I'm really keen to raise the profile of the English and History department. The two disciplines combine my areas of interest perfectly - much of the literature that I work on is of a historical nature."