J.J. Hamilton
Hey there. My name is Josh Hamilton – or as my students know me, Mr. Hamilton. I’m a teacher of History in Birmingham. I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2018 with a 2:1 in English and History (BA), Hons., and left the same university in 2020 with a merit in the PGDipEd.
When I’m not in the classroom, I’m behind a keyboard, writing. I write about all sorts, from short stories to poetry and novels. Other times I’m in the gym or practicing Taekwondo. But it’s not all go in my life; I like to settle down with a good book or video game, or a Marvel movie every now and then.
On this blog, I specialise in Education, Productivity and personal development, so if you’re interested in any of those, you should absolutely consider giving my posts a read.

What I’m in to
- I’ve been practicing Taekwondo for most of my life (2008-present) and have a second-degree black belt in the martial art. I plan to open a class of my own one day.
- Standing in front of an audience and teaching keeps the lights on and it’s also a personal passion. I just love talking about History. In fact, I stayed up until gone 3AM with a friend I was living with in my Second Year of university after getting onto the topic of ‘why do nations exist?’ We blog about that over on our History blog, linked below.
- I’m usually victimised by cabin fever, which is why I stay as active as possible. To get out of the house, I’m a huge fan of lifting heavy things at the gym. Currently, I’m aiming for more muscle mass.
Where to find me
- Right here! Hardly Hamilton is active every week, with new posts usually on Fridays.
- Our Velvet Revolution is home to any Historical/Social/Political essay-style work that I and my friend, Niamh Coffey (PhD student!), update as regularly as we can. I aim to post there once a month, depending on when inspiration strikes.
- Up until the Covid-19 pandemic, I wrote as a freelancer for BorroClub, a website that allows you to lend and borrow your items instead of buying new. I also managed the social media channels.
- Until the company shut down, I wrote for Campus Society, a social media site for students, from mid-2017 to late-2019.
- I also had an internship with Gorilla Socks, where I interviewed primatologists. My short stint there was incredibly insightful into the process of conducting a solid interview.
- While at University, I did the typical wannabe-journo thing of writing for the student newspaper, Redbrick News, where I conducted investigations, worked as part of a team and under NDAs.
So, what I’m saying for items 1-6, is that if you need a freelance writer who knows his way around social media channels and a blog post, then I should really be your first choice.
- My LinkedIn, for any employers who have stumbled across my website.
- Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, to stay tuned-in to my ramblings.
I’m in this for the long-haul, so I hope you stick around, too!