A Management, Politics and International Relations student from Lancaster University Management School has been keeping himself busy during lockdown, managing to co-author his first ever book – and all while completing his studies.

Entrepreneurial Nathan Shoesmith, 20, originally from Norwich but now living in Lancaster, is Managing Director of The Speaker, a news media company set up by students in Norwich in 2018 on a mission to inspire and engage the next generation in politics. It was through his active role with The Speaker that his first print publication was born.

“I was one of the founders of The Speaker which aims to make politics more accessible and understandable for the wider public, particularly young people,” Nathan explains. “Through this role in 2020, I developed The Speaker’s Education Service and explanatory politics guides, questioned senior politicians on a range of topics from coronavirus to mental health on broadcast television and created news content seen millions of times by our audiences in the UK and across the globe. Each year at The Speaker, I write an article recapping the major events of the year, though given all that happened in 2020, a book seemed more appropriate.

“Having a record of how 2020 unfolded is important for everyone, given the extent of change and unprecedented events that impacted the lives of us all. I hope the book will help current and future generations understand how the year unfolded.”

The book is called 2020 As It Happened and is now available to purchase on Amazon in the UK and around the world. Featuring adapted impartial reporting and analysis from The Speaker, the book looks back on the truly unprecedented year of events both COVID and non-COVID-related, UK and worldwide.

Professor Bogdan Costea is one of Nathan’s tutors. He said: “Nathan has understood seriously and with intellectual sensibility how important the year 2020 has been for humanity as a whole and has tried to think it all through – this is exactly what we all hope university education means.”