Saturday Signing — Come and Meet Author Ben Shaw

Come and meet author Ben Shaw, who will be showcasing his book, The Slave Trader.

From humble beginnings as a cabin boy, Bryan Blundell became captain, merchant, philanthropist, and twice mayor of Liverpool. He founded the Blue Coat School and helped shape the Liverpool we know today.

But his fortune was bound to the Atlantic slave trade. Ships he owned and ventures he financed tied his name to immense human suffering.

Drawing on Blundell’s own journal alongside shipping records, sermons, and civic archives, this book offers a vivid, unflinching portrait of both a man and a city – one of ambition, faith, and contradiction.

It is a story not just of prosperity and philanthropy, but also of the hidden costs that underpinned them.