Today my friend, the redoubtable Mrs Virginia Bilocca-McKenzie, sent me some photos from June when she returned to her native Hull from her home in New Zealand, to be at the launch of my book The Headscarf Revolutionaries (Barbican Press, 2015). which tells the story of Virginia's late mother, the heroic Mrs Lillian Bilocca, who led an incredibly successful safety at sea campaign in 1968, just days after three Hull trawlers sank in as many weeks with 58 men perishing. Lillian's campaign took Vietnam off the front pages and changed the most dangerous industry on Earth for the better, but it came at a great personal cost. Virginia was also a guest of honour along with her family and friends at my first public lecture, which was at the Hull History Centre, quite apt since this was where much of the research for my book and its attendant PhD thesis was done. If you would like your university, history group, school or other organisation to hear my lecture get in touch with me directly via the Contact page on this website.
