Audrey T. Carpenter

Audrey T. Carpenter is a British biographer, after an earlier career as a technical abstractor and librarian.

Career

Carpenter (née Smith) was born in Dorking on 7 September 1935 and grew up mainly in Banstead. She attended Sutton High School from 1942-1953. While in Lower IVr she contributed an article about a visit to Cheddar Gorge in 1948.

Audrey Smith gained a State Scholarship and a place at Imperial College London in 1953, from where she graduated with a BSc in chemistry in 1956. She graduated from the University of London with a doctorate in chemistry in 1959, and worked as a technical abstractor and librarian. She then studied for a degree in English at Loughborough University in 1990, and went on to gain a second PhD, in 2010, on John Theophilus Desaguliers: her thesis title was "Ingenious Philosopher: John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744), popularizer of Newtonianism and promoter of freemasonry".

She has written biographies of freemason John Theophilus Desaguliers, opera singer Giovanna Sestini and Sestini's grandson Joachim Hayward Stocqueler, and wrote Sestini's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Her biography of Desaguliers has been listed by the Museum of Freemasonry in its "Learn about Freemasonry: 12 books to expand your knowledge".

Selected publications

Books

• Carpenter, Audrey; Carpenter, John; Jarram, Tony (2007). The Lacemakers' Story: Loughborough, Luddites and Long Journeys. Loughborough: Friends of Charnwood Museum. p. 32. ISBN 9780955626807.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (2011). John Theophilus Desaguliers: A Natural Philosopher, Engineer and Freemason in Newtonian England. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781441182227.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (2017). Giovanna Sestini: an Italian opera singer in eighteenth-century London. Kibworth Beauchamp: Matador. ISBN 978-1-788-03880-5.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (2018). A Resourceful Rogue: Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1801-1886). FeedARead.com. ISBN 9781788763707.

ODNB contribution

• Carpenter, Audrey T. "Sestini, Giovanna [married name Joanna Stocqueler] (1749–1814)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/106538. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Journal articles

• Carpenter, Audrey T. (2015). "A "Most enchanting comic actress": Giovanna Sestini, an Italian opera singer in the London theatres". Theatre Notebook. 69 (3): 136–151.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (Spring 2015). "From Soldier to Newspaperman: The Varied Experiences of Joachim Hayward Stocqueler in Bombay and Calcutta from 1819 to 1843" (PDF). Journal of the Families in British India Society. 33: 3-14.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (11 April 2016). "Which is the Pseudonym: J.H.Stocqueler or J.H.Siddons?". Notes and Queries. 63 (2). OUP: 254–55. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjw055.
• Carpenter, A T (2016). "J T Desaguliers: 18th century experimental philosopher". The Huguenot Society Journal. 30. London: 4.
• Carpenter, Audrey T. (1 December 2017). "Is This Really a Poem by Lord Macaulay?". Notes and Queries. 64 (4). OUP: 620–22. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjx128.
• Carpenter, Audrey T (2018). "From Vocalist to "Inventor of the Dresses": Vincenzo Sestini's Career at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket". Theatre Notebook. 72: 27–39.
• Carpenter, Audrey T (2020). "Thomas Desaguliers, officer and equerry. Part 1: Development of a career in the Royal Artillery". Huguenot Society Journal. 33: 27–41.
• Carpenter, Audrey T (2021). "Thomas Desaguliers, officer and equerry. Part 2: Royal service and development of ordnance". Huguenot Society Journal. 34. London: 16–32.
• Carpenter, A. T. (2022). "Gamaliel Massiot: Artist and Teacher". The Huguenot Society Journal. 35. London: 98–99.