About Me
In 1999, I graduated from the University of Warwick with a PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies. For a decade I worked as a writer and editor on a daily national newspaper (Metro), and now work in a communications role for a UK university.
I am passionate about history. In 2012, I published Lichfield Then & Now with The History Press, a book comprising historic photographs paired with contemporary colour versions of the same views.
Since 2014, I’ve been researching and writing a biography of the 18th-century Irish actress Peg Woffington. I’ve presented papers about her at Bath Spa University, the National University of Ireland, Galway, and St Hugh’s College, Oxford. In 2017 I was invited to address the Samuel Johnson Society of Lichfield to mark the tercentenary of David Garrick’s birth.
I’m an active member of various scholarly communities, including the Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837, The Biographers’ Club and the Samuel Johnson Society of Lichfield. I’m also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
I’ve published occasional pieces on Peg for academic audiences, such as “Visual Art as Celebrity Memoir: The Paradox of Peg Woffington’s Sick-bed Portrait” which appeared in the journal Life Writing. In 2020, an essay I wrote about Peg’s travesty performances won the Society for Theatre Research’s New Scholar’s Prize and was published in Theatre Notebook in 2021.
In my spare time I volunteer for the Samuel Johnson Society of Lichfield both as a member of Council and the editorial board of its annual journal (Transactions). I also enjoy spending time with our charismatic cat, Rusty.
Lichfield Then & Now
Hardcover: 96 pages
Publisher: The History Press Ltd (Nov 2012)
ISBN-10: 0752461133
ISBN-13: 978-0752461137
Lichfield Then & Now pairs 45 carefully chosen photographs from archives, postcards and private collections with 45 contemporary colour versions of the same views, providing a fascinating visual chronicle of the city’s progress. Compare the old layout of Lichfield’s streets – its shop-fronts, parks and pools – with the Lichfield of today and see for yourself the subtle march of time, even in this most historic of places. Lichfield Then & Now will delight all local historians and will awaken nostalgic memories for those who used to live or work there.

Annette Rubery: Bibliography
B.A. Combined Honours in Fine Art and English Literature, University of Chester, 1994
M.A. The Word and the Visual Imagination, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 1995
Ph.D. English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, 1999
BOOKS
Lichfield Then & Now (Stroud: The History Press, 2012). 45 carefully chosen photographs from archives, postcards and private collections with 45 contemporary colour versions of the same views, providing a fascinating visual chronicle of the city’s progress.
ARTICLES
Sleeve note on Henry Carey for John Frederick Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley, conducted by John Andrews (Resonus, released July 4th 2022).
“‘Thus Let Me Wipe Dishonour from my Name’: Peg Woffington as Lothario in The Fair Penitent”, Theatre Notebook, 75 (2021), 76-93. Winner of the The Society for Theatre Research’s New Scholars’ Prize 2020.
“Visual Art as Celebrity Memoir: The Paradox of Peg Woffington’s Sick-bed Portrait,” Life Writing, 16 (2019), 213-230. Also published in book form in Life Writing and Celebrity: Exploring Intersections, ed. Sandra Mayer and Julia Novak (Routledge, 2020).
“‘Lovely Peggy’: David Garrick’s Unsuitable Mistress,” The Johnson Society Transactions (2018), 39-51. Delivered as a lecture to the Society to mark the tercentenary of David Garrick’s birth.
REVIEWS
“David Garrick and the Mediation of Celebrity by Leslie Ritchie”, The Johnson Society Transactions (2021), 83-85. Read it here >>