Debbie Kilroy
Writer at GetHistoryDebbie Kilroy is a writer and historian. Having read history at the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate, where she won the Kenrick Prize, she founded the award-winning ‘Get History’ platform in 2014 with the aim of bringing accessible yet high quality history-telling and debate to a wide audience. Since then, she has completed a Masters in Historical Studies at the University of Oxford, receiving a distinction and the Kellogg College Community Engagement and Impact Award. An Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, her first book, Members Behaving Badly: A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues was published by Elliott & Thompson in 2026. Her article for Parliaments, Estates and Representation won the international ICHRPI Emile Lousse prize for the best political essay by an up-and-coming historian.
The Latest from Debbie Kilroy
Monarchs Behaving Badly: James I and the Visit of Christian IV of Denmark
James I of England (and VI of Scotland) has not always had a good reputation. Known as ‘the wisest fool in Christendome’, he was considered slovenly, his tongue was reportedly too big for his mouth, making him both a messy eater and occasionally difficult to understand, and he took too personal an interest in people’s private affairs.
Ten Facts You Might Not Know about Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley is famous as the wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and as the author of the classic novel Frankenstein. But these two facts, interesting as they are, belie the depth of character and experience of this clever, unconventional, and remarkable woman.
The Black Death: A Brief Introduction
The Black Death looms large in the modern imagination, as it did in the minds of late medieval people. It is a spectre, or shadow, reminding everyone of their mortality, and the briefness of life. The reactions it provoked showed the best, and worst, of the human condition, and its long-term effects contributed to sweeping changes in society.
Ten Facts You Might Not Know about John Dee
John Dee is famous as a sorcerer and alchemistSomeone who practices alchemy (the attempt to turn base metals into gold and to gain spiritual awareness and immortality).
Ten Facts You Might Not Know about Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys is best known for his diary, which he kept from 1660 until 1669, when he gave it up over fears of his eyesight failing.
The Puritan Threat?
Since the establishment of the Church of England under Elizabeth I, a myth has been built up - and perpetuated by historiography - that showed puritans as a dangerous group, seeking to turn the world upside down, to destroy the sacred position of the monarch as head of the church, and to question all divine-right authority. But were puritans really that much of a threat?
