Editorial: Play in the Long Nineteenth Century

Sophie Thompson is a CHASE-funded PhD researcher at the University of Kent, completing her thesis: Making Socialists: Writers, Childhood, and an Alternative Socialist Education, 1880–1911. Her research focuses on fin-de-siècle theories of child development, children’s play and games, parenting, children’s spaces, utopian thought, and childhood in the Arts and Crafts movement. From January 2025 to January 2026, Sophie served as Editor-in-Chief of Romance, Revolution and Reform, producing Issue 8: 'Play in the Long Nineteenth Century'.