Disability

A History of Resistance

De: David Turner

A groundbreaking history of modern Britain that puts the experiences of disabled people to the fore for the first time.

Despite there being more than 16 million disabled people in the UK today, disability rarely features in mainstream accounts of our past. That absence is not down to lack of evidence: it is a forgotten, suppressed history – the result of deliberate choices about whose histories matter. This remarkable book rectifies this.

Disability is a story of resistance and ingenuity, full of people who refused to be silenced or pitied. We meet the labourer who fights accusations in court that he’s faking his disability, and wins; the painter who signs her royalty miniatures ‘without hands’; and the one-armed textile worker who turned his injury into reform. We see how disabled people have rallied together to demand equality – fighting for their right to lead ordinary lives like everybody else.

This is a story not of progress led by doctors or philanthropists, but an extraordinary ground-up history of ordinary people demanding dignity and justice. By putting disabled people back into our national story, David Turner reveals a fuller and richer history of modern Britain than ever before.

'A timely and enjoyable untold history' PHILIPPA GREGORY, author of Normal Women

'A rare feat of a book: so many extraordinary stories, so many lost names, brought to light' RAYMOND ANTROBUS, author of The Perseverance

© David Turner 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

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A timely and enjoyable untold history, filled with resilience, courage and even humour (Philippa Gregory, author of Normal Women)

A rare feat of a book: so many extraordinary stories, so many lost names, brought to light, re-evaluated and revised through a caring and knowledgeable disability lens. A nuanced, intersectional and textured human history, David Turner has done us all a great service with Disability (Raymond Antrobus, author of The Perseverance)

A fascinating, detailed and brilliant book, from which I have learned so much. Exactly what we all need (Tom Shakespeare, Professor of Disability Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

A lively, sensitive history of disability and ableism, from the workhouses of the 'age of faith' through to our age of austerity. With moving vignettes and powerful storytelling, Turner sets out the struggle of disabled people for dignity, humanity and respect, and demonstrates with eloquence just how far we have to go to build a society that puts people before profit (Gavin Francis, author of Recovery)

A profound chronicle of the lives of British disabled people throughout history, this book is a necessary reminder of the extraordinary abilities and resourcefulness of those who are too often still pushed to the margins. Gripping, profound and important (Gabriel Weston, author of Alive)

A rich, immersive and well-rounded narrative on the extraordinary battles undertaken for the right to an ordinary life. Disability is a bold declaration that disabled people have always been here, in all sections of society. Truly fantastic (Grace Spence Green, author of To Exist As I Am)