Professor Carl Chinn MBE, DL, Ph.D., F.Birm.Soc.

Professor Carl Chinn MBE Ph.D. is a social historian with a national profile, writer, teacher, and public speaker. An off-course bookmaker until 1984, after which he was unemployed and part-time employed for several years, he is the son and grandson of illegal bookmakers in Sparkbrook, whilst his mother’s family were factory workers in Aston. His writings and broadcasting are deeply affected by his family’s working-class background and life in the back-to-backs of Birmingham, and he is resolute in his belief that history must be democratised because each and every person has made their mark upon history and has a story to tell.

Carl is the author of 35 books, amongst them studies of working-class housing, urban working-class life, poorer working-class women’s lives, manufacturing, Birmingham, the Black Country, illegal bookmaking, and ethnic minorities. He is also co-editor of Birmingham. The Workshop of the World (2016), the first major history of Birmingham since the 1970s.

His latest works make it clear that real gangsters are not glamorous anti-heroes but unsavoury men who prey upon their own. That reality is to the fore of Peaky Blinders: The Real Story. The true history of Birmingham’s most notorious gangs (2019), a Sunday Times number 1 bestseller which has been translated into thirteen languages; Peaky Blinders: The Legacy. The real story of Britain’s most notorious 1920s gangs (2020); and Peaky Blinders: The Aftermath: The real story behind the next generation of British gangsters (2021). Carl’s work on gangs has featured in The Times, The Herald (Scotland), the Irish Independent, Historia Hoy (Spain) and other publications as well as on BBC 1, RTE, and other broadcasters.  

The consultant historian on BBC2’s 2022 two-part documentary, ‘The Real Peaky Blinders’, Carl has also contributed to ‘Britain's Biggest Dig’ on BBC 2 and ‘Walking Victorian Britain’ on My5. Previously, he was the expert on ITV’s ‘The Way We Were’ series, presented regular history slots on BBC Midlands Today, and has appeared as a historical expert on BBC 1’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ and ‘The One Show’ as well as on the BBC 2 series ‘The Victorian Slum’. Carl has been interviewed on numerous Radio 4 programmes, most recently in the documentary ‘Brum Britain’, and has featured in Radio 3’s ‘Metal City’ (2023); for 19 years he had a weekly local history show on BBC WM; he wrote a weekly local history feature for the Express and Star from 2004-2016; and since 1994 he has been writing weekly local history features for the Birmingham Mail.

A noted campaigner for the rights of the working class, Carl played a prominent role in saving the last back to backs in Birmingham, now a National Trust Museum; in the drive for a memorial to the paupers who died in the Birmingham Workhouse; in the fight to ensure the re-opening of Birmingham’s Town Hall; and in the campaign for a fitting memorial for the victims of the Blitz in Birmingham. An ardent supporter of manufacturing, he was a key figure in the battle to keep the Longbridge car factory open in 2001 and later supported the struggles for jobs at Alstom, HP Sauce, and Smith and Nephew.

Formerly at the University of Birmingham as Professor of Community History, a unique role, and Director of the BirminghamLives project collecting working-class memories, Carl is now Emeritus Professor and a freelance social historian. As such, he collaborates on local history projects in several schools, including George Dixon Academy, Eden Girls Leadership Academy, Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School, Tudor Grange Academy Kingshurst, and Holly Lodge High School College of Science in Smethwick, whilst at St Paul’s School for Girls, he supports 6th formers with their history coursework.

Carl believes passionately that through young people understanding their local and family histories they can reach out to the world, especially to the countries connected to Birmingham through migration. In so doing, they can learn to respect the diverse communities of the city and recognise that which we all have in common – Our Birmingham. As he emphasises, there are Many Peoples One Birmingham.

Carl Chinn was awarded the MBE in June 2001 for his services to local history and fund-raising for local charities, and he has also been involved in building homes for orphans in Romania and refurbishing a school in the Andes in Ecuador. In 2010, he was awarded a Gold Medal by the Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering for his “commitment, enthusiasm and support for our manufacturing heritage”. Two years later, he was presented with a special Local Heroes Award by the Birmingham Mail for championing the city and uncovering its past; in June 2014, he was made a Master of the Open University for his work in community history; in 2018, he was voted one of the ten most inspiring Brummies by staff, students, and the public in ‘BCU 175 Brummies Who Inspire’; in 2021, he was the winner of the Chair’s Award at The City of Birmingham Business Awards; and 2022, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Birmingham Awards; and in April 2023, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant to the Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands.