Alun Withey

I'm an academic historian interested in the medical and social history of Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular interests in the history of the body, and masculinity.

I didn't set out to be a medical historian - not least since I'm extremely squeamish! My interest was piqued by a source I came across whilst studying for my BA degree. This was a seventeenth-century notebook, with all sorts of remedies, recipes and little snippets of information. From that moment on, I was hooked!

My first book, 'Physick and the Family' was the first academic book dedicated to Welsh medicine in the early modern period, and is the culmination of over six years' research. It sets out to give a new perspective on Welsh medical history, but also uses Wales to ask broader questions about the experience of health, sickness and care in the early modern period.

I then shifted focus a little, and published a second book exploring technologies of the body in the eighteenth century, before turning, most recently, to the history of facial hair in my new book, Concerning Beards'. This includes everything from beard styles and manliness, the commercialisation and advertising of facial hair products and a new history of barbers.

My next project will explore health and medical advice to travellers in the past.