Mickey Mayhew | Autistic Author & Hisotrian
Mickey Mayhew is the author of non-fiction books including I Love the Tudors, The Little Book of Mary Queen of Scots, The Anne Boleyn Bible, House of Tudor: A Grisly History, Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots: The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen and Rasputin and His Russian Queen: The True Story of Grigory and Alexandra. He also co-wrote three non-fiction works about the notorious East End murderer Jack the Ripper and wrote the fictional trilogy ‘The Barrow Boys of Barking’, namely Jack and the Lad, Taking Tiffany and Jamie’s Big Bang. As an author with autism, he hopes to raise awareness of the achievements of autistic/‘neurodiverse’ people, as detailed in his autobiography Mickeypedia.
Education & Research
Mr Mayhew holds a BSc in sociology, an MA in creative writing, an MSc in sociology, an MA in gender, sexuality, politics and culture, and a PhD in sociology. From May to August 2018 and from May to December 2019 he was a research assistant at London South Bank University. For the latter period he was part of a project team researching adults living with autism and the support – or lack thereof – that they receive. In September 2020, Mr Mayhew was contracted by Pen and Sword Books to write four books over the course of three years, which he successfully achieved.
With his love of travel fuelled by a fascination in the historical subjects he writes about, Mr Mayhew has travelled extensively around England and Scotland as part of his research into the Tudors and Mary Queen of Scots, as well as visiting France, Belgium, the Netherlands and towns in Germany connected to Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves. He has also visited St Petersburgh in Russia as part of writing about Rasputin and the Romanovs.
Hobbies & Interests
Mr Mayhew is fascinated by true crime; as well as Jack the Ripper, he has recently become interested in the US serial killer Ed Gein, having discovered that he was the inspiration for multiple movie serial killer characters, including those in The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as the Psycho franchise. Mr Mayhew is planning a trip to Wisconsin in the near future with a view to writing a new non-fiction book about Gein.
With his love of travel fuelled by a fascination in the historical subjects he writes about, Mr Mayhew has travelled extensively around England and Scotland as part of his research into the Tudors and Mary Queen of Scots, as well as visiting France, Belgium, the Netherlands and towns in Germany connected to Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves. He has also visited St Petersburgh in Russia as part of writing about Rasputin and the Romanovs.
Whitechapel Society
Mr Mayhew has been a member of the Whitechapel Society (a historical society originally founded to study the murders of Jack the Ripper) since 2008 and has served on the organisation’s committee for around 10 years. He is also a member of the Mary Queen of Scots society and several university alumni groups.