A new free Key Stage 3 graphic novel and teaching pack brings the extraordinary life of Black Regency performer Billy Waters into the classroom, offering students fresh perspectives on race, disability, identity, and storytelling — and giving teachers ready-to-use resources to diversify their curriculum
At the 2025 NATE Conference, there was a palpable buzz around our table, as teachers paused to explore Billy Waters: Songs from the Shadows, a new graphic novel about the Black Regency performer who once captivated London audiences. Many commented on how useful it would be alongside set texts like Coram Boy, or how its visual, interactive style might reach reluctant readers. Others welcomed the chance to challenge the idea that Black British history begins only with Windrush. Their reactions confirmed what we hoped: Waters’ story, and the free resources built around it, can open up fresh conversations in the classroom.
‘So many people still think Black British history begins with Windrush — this graphic novel will help me to show this isn’t the case.’
Broadening the range of materials that students encounter in the classroom is on the wish lists of many teachers. But how can it be done effectively within the confines of the curriculum? And how can teachers use brand-new research in a contemporary classroom?
As Disabilities Co-ordinator for Arts and Humanities at Roehampton University, and as a qualified teacher, I have long wanted to ensure that my students can find themselves reflected in the past lives and texts that I teach in my English seminar room. I also want them to encounter the strangeness of the past and think about big questions like ‘How do we tell forgotten stories?’, ‘Who gets to be remembered and why?’, and ‘Who gets to have a voice?’ A set of new, free resources for schools designed by our collaborative team of researchers, teachers, and creatives, offers ways to do just that: through the incredible life of Black Regency busker and celebrity, Billy Waters.
Finding Billy Waters
I first encountered Billy Waters, like many Regency readers did, in the pages of a hit book called Life in London (1821). I wrote and published the first biography of Billy Waters in 2024. Now, thanks to our project Billy Waters: Songs from the Shadows, students can encounter Billy Waters through the pages of the free graphic novel we’ve created.
‘Resistant readers will love this.’
The combination of pictures (by artist Selena Scott) and words (by Dr Ben Marsh, University of Kent) take students through Billy Waters’ amazing life. Waters was African-American and born in 1770s New York, just after the War of Independence. He began as an expert sailor, joined the British Navy in 1811, and was promoted to Petty Officer rank. But a chance accident at sea meant he had to have a leg amputated and in 1812, he left the maritime life behind. Needing to top up his naval pension to support his wife and children, Waters became a busker. Performing in costume, singing, and dancing on a wooden prosthetic leg, he turned himself into a London celebrity: artists drew him, writers wrote about him, and he even became a character in a hit musical in 1821. Yet the fame never brought him wealth, and he died in poverty in a London workhouse in 1823.
In the classroom
The graphic novel is based on deeply researched materials and uses a choose-your-own-adventure style to ask big questions about identity, agency, race, disability, and migration in 19th-century London. Who got to tell their own story, and who did not? How did Black and disabled people in nineteenth-century London live, work, and create their own identities in a challenging world? How can graphic storytelling help to bring the past to life? What does it mean to tell a story through words and pictures? The graphic novel empowers young people to develop critical and creative thinking skills for themselves based on new research which covers key themes of literacy, globalisation, economics, race, disability, media, and interpretation of evidence.
‘This resource will work great alongside Coram Boy.‘
The free resource – downloadable here as a PDF – addresses assessment requirements for historical context and sits alongside texts such as A Christmas Carol, Coram Boy, Tyger, Jane Eyre, and others: our educator resources page has PowerPoint slideshows and teaching ideas to drop into your existing schemes of work. The accompanying song by Angeline Morrison is also on the educator resources page and can be used alongside the graphic novel to engage different kinds of learners and to think about how we tell stories.
You’ll also find free videos, lesson plans, and even a podcast interviewing the creative team – all of which can be used in assemblies, special lessons, or alongside literary texts.
Workshops and feedback
Teachers have reported significant impact from using these resources. They have noted that the graphic novel and soundscape have initiated meaningful conversations about race, disability, and the transformative power of storytelling. Some of their testimonies reveal that Billy Waters resources are important in that they can, among other things, ‘amplify black voices and disability,’ ‘expand our knowledge of black artists, writers etc from the past that shaped British culture’ and ‘give the students a chance to see things from a different perspective.’
The March 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review: Interim Report states that the current curriculum does not now adequately address social and cultural changes and no longer prepares young people adequately to be contemporary global citizens. In particular, the report states that: ‘nearly 4 in 10 children are not meeting all the standards they need to… thrive in secondary schooling. And too many young people arrive at the end of Key Stage 4 without having succeeded in securing their level 2 qualifications, including in English’. The Interim Report recommends therefore, that: ‘The national curriculum should empower teachers to foster a love of learning… to widen horizons, and to ensure that young people see meaningful representations of themselves in what they learn, as well as encountering and recognising the perspectives of others’. Billy Waters: Songs from the Shadows offers a prototype that has the potential to address these calls and to make a significant impact in the classroom.
With their interactive and ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ styles, these resources encourage students to engage critically with the information presented and develop the creative thinking skills necessary to thrive in the classroom and beyond, as engaged citizens and independent learners. They offer a ‘thinking tool-kit’ for students and teachers which enables young people to discover their passions across multiple subjects: history, literature, art, music, drama, citizenship, etc. They speak directly to socio-economically disadvantaged young people and those with SEND, but also more broadly across multiple subject areas.
By resurrecting forgotten stories like Billy Waters’ amazing life, we don’t just teach literature and history — we repair its omissions, and in doing so, give students both mirrors to see themselves and windows to understand others.
Limited free hardcopy classroom sets are available for the 2025-26 academic year — teachers are encouraged to register now to secure these materials before supplies run out.
Request free copies of Billy Waters: Songs from the Shadows – Age of Revolution