With a lifetime’s enthusiasm for history and archaeology, Ian is committed to helping people appreciate how important it is to understand the past as a way of understanding the world. He has many years of research and writing experience, and a specialist knowledge of maritime history that ranges from the Middle Ages to modern times.
Ian also has experience at all levels of the museum profession, from national to local museums, and from researcher to curator and manager. He has worked successfully as a museum consultant since 2007, playing an important role as an interpretation specialist and researcher for projects in London, Southampton, Portsmouth, West Sussex, the Lake District and Poole. He has been involved in successful HLF project bids for over £13.5 million of museum development funding.
At the end of August 2020, Pen & Sword published the first of two new books written by Ian, Britain and the Ocean Road – Shipwrecks and People 1297-1825. Based on firsthand research, the books use the stories of various shipwrecks as waypoints in an exploration of Britain’s complex maritime history, and how it impacted the world. The second book, Breaking Seas, Broken Ships – People, Shipwrecks and Britain 1854-2007, is due out in 2021.
In early 2020 Ian undertook a research project for the Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, looking into the long and fascinating history of the oyster fishery in Chichester Harbour. His report, entitled ‘Real Natives’, can be downloaded at: https://secure.toolkitfiles.co.uk/clients/34087/sitedata/files/Research/Oyster-History-Ian-Friel.pdf
Hoakes Island – A Fiendish Puzzle Adventure: in 2018 Ian created the story for this children’s puzzle and adventure book, devised and illustrated by his daughter, the illustrator Helen Friel (https://www.helenfriel.com), for Laurence King Publishing. Find out more at: https://www.laurenceking.com/product/hoakes-island. Helen and Ian are currently at work on another children’s book project for LKP, due for publication in 2021.
Ian’s research identified the 17th-century Swash Channel Wreck as the Fame of Hoorn in the Netherlands, lost off Poole in February 1631. See: https://ianfrielhistorian.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/lost-property-identifying-the-seventeenth-century-swash-channel-wreck/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-39353551
Agent representation: Ian’s writing is now represented by Donald Winchester of Watson, Little Ltd (http://www.watsonlittle.com/agent/donald-winchester/).
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – March 2014. Still a hero? A reconstruction of Drake’s Golden Hind, London 2013. People have all sorts of heroes and heroines – actors, musicians, sports stars, even politicians. The late Tony Benn, who sadly died a couple of days ago, was…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – March, 2017. A photomosaic of the Fame wrecksite. (C) Bournemouth University The Swash Channel leads to the main entrance of Poole Harbour in Dorset, and this is where the Swash Channel Wreck lies. The original name of the ship has been lost…
This article was originally published on my WordPress blog – February 2017. A Rostock street, January 1987 This is a fragment of personal history about the fringes of the Cold War. I want to post it now because the events happened thirty years ago this year and because they recall people in…