The provincial newspaper was read by peers, politicians and the proletariat alike. It is striking, however, how limited a range of newspapers and journals are offered for analysis in most historical studies of the political media in modern Britain. The predominance of the London political press and Punch in academic discourse appears to derive largely from the easy availability of these papers and journals to modern scholars rather than their actual distribution and popularity. Consequently, there has been hitherto a distinct lack of attention given to the British regional press by historians. This collection aims to correct this imbalance by investigating the development, maturation and persistence of the provincial political press in the British Isles in the modern era. Chapters covering aspects of the Irish, Yorkshire, Welsh, Scottish and Midlands political press are included to ensure a representative geographical spread of provincial Britain. These chapters cover previously neglected aspects of print culture, political literacy and reading practices across the regions of Britain in the late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to offer an introduction to research in this burgeoning field of study.

Ian Cawood is Reader in Modern History at Newman University, Birmingham, UK. He is the author of The Liberal Unionist Party, 1886-1912: A History (2012) and the editor of Joseph Chamberlain: Imperial Statesman, National Leader and Local Icon (2016). Lisa Peters works in academic administration at the University of Chester, UK. She is the author of Politics, Publishing and Personalities: Wrexham Newspapers, 1848-1914 (2011).