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Martyn Lyons
Martyn Lyons FAHA (born 1946) is emeritus professor of history and European studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is a specialist in the history of the book, Australian history and French history.
Martyn Andrew Lyons was born in Westminster, the eldest of five siblings. His father, Edward Lyons (b. Leeds, 1920), of Polish Jewish ancestry, was an ophthalmologist who set up the first eye clinic at H.M. Stanley hospital in St. Asaph, Flintshire. His mother, Marian Spence (b. Elland, 1922), of Anglo-Scottish descent, was a nurse who became the first woman to be a Leader of a County Council (Clwyd) in the United Kingdom.
Lyons spent his infancy with his mother’s relatives in Lancashire until 1950, when his father returned from active service in the Middle East, where he was a major in the medical corps. After his father was appointed to a consultancy in North Wales, he moved the family to Llanddulas in 1954 which became home for over 60 years.
Lyons was educated at Oriel House School, St. Asaph, and Epsom College, Surrey, before attending Jesus College, Oxford. He initially read Law but, after passing Moderations, decided to study History, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History, first class.
In 1968, he married Jacqueline James, with whom he had three daughters, Blaise, Holly and Claudine. They separated in 2001 and were divorced in 2004. Since 2005 he has been the partner of University of New South Wales colleague Mina Roces.
In 1968, Lyons embarked on doctoral research into the history of Toulouse during the French Revolution, under the supervision of Richard Cobb. He was a member of a small group of Oxford researchers (including Colin Lucas, Alan Forrest, Bill Edmonds, William Scott) developing a view of the French Revolution from its municipal and provincial grassroots. He received his D. Phil. in 1972. Cobb’s influence can be detected throughout Lyons’ work even after he ceased to be a historian of the French Revolution. One reviewer found traces of ‘sansculottisme’ in Lyons’ history of reading and writing.
In 1971, Lyons was appointed Junior Research Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, where he co-organised a seminar in French History with Tony Judt and represented the college at football and cricket. He published France under the Directory (1975), the first of three successful general histories of the revolutionary and post-revolutionary period.
In 1975, he became the Research Fellow in Arts at Durham University, where he published a version of his doctoral thesis, Revolution and Terror in Toulouse (1978). The French translation by Philippe Wolff was awarded the Prix Fayolle in 1981 by the Toulouse Académie des Jeux Floraux.
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Martyn Lyons
Martyn Lyons FAHA (born 1946) is emeritus professor of history and European studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is a specialist in the history of the book, Australian history and French history.
Martyn Andrew Lyons was born in Westminster, the eldest of five siblings. His father, Edward Lyons (b. Leeds, 1920), of Polish Jewish ancestry, was an ophthalmologist who set up the first eye clinic at H.M. Stanley hospital in St. Asaph, Flintshire. His mother, Marian Spence (b. Elland, 1922), of Anglo-Scottish descent, was a nurse who became the first woman to be a Leader of a County Council (Clwyd) in the United Kingdom.
Lyons spent his infancy with his mother’s relatives in Lancashire until 1950, when his father returned from active service in the Middle East, where he was a major in the medical corps. After his father was appointed to a consultancy in North Wales, he moved the family to Llanddulas in 1954 which became home for over 60 years.
Lyons was educated at Oriel House School, St. Asaph, and Epsom College, Surrey, before attending Jesus College, Oxford. He initially read Law but, after passing Moderations, decided to study History, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History, first class.
In 1968, he married Jacqueline James, with whom he had three daughters, Blaise, Holly and Claudine. They separated in 2001 and were divorced in 2004. Since 2005 he has been the partner of University of New South Wales colleague Mina Roces.
In 1968, Lyons embarked on doctoral research into the history of Toulouse during the French Revolution, under the supervision of Richard Cobb. He was a member of a small group of Oxford researchers (including Colin Lucas, Alan Forrest, Bill Edmonds, William Scott) developing a view of the French Revolution from its municipal and provincial grassroots. He received his D. Phil. in 1972. Cobb’s influence can be detected throughout Lyons’ work even after he ceased to be a historian of the French Revolution. One reviewer found traces of ‘sansculottisme’ in Lyons’ history of reading and writing.
In 1971, Lyons was appointed Junior Research Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, where he co-organised a seminar in French History with Tony Judt and represented the college at football and cricket. He published France under the Directory (1975), the first of three successful general histories of the revolutionary and post-revolutionary period.
In 1975, he became the Research Fellow in Arts at Durham University, where he published a version of his doctoral thesis, Revolution and Terror in Toulouse (1978). The French translation by Philippe Wolff was awarded the Prix Fayolle in 1981 by the Toulouse Académie des Jeux Floraux.