Twenty Stories. One Norwich. The City of Stories.
Marking twenty years of championing the city, VisitNorwich presents an ambitious year-long cultural celebration: Twenty Stories. One City. The City of Stories. Written by local guest authors our stories range from medieval rebels and mystics to pioneering reformers, artists, entrepreneurs and unsung heroes, these are the people who shaped Norwich – and whose legacy can still be discovered across the city today.
Amelia Opie (1769 – 1853)
Amelia Opie has been described as the most respected woman fiction writer of the 1800s and 1810s- by the age of 22 she was writing and performing her own plays and had her first book published. Amelia became a leading abolitionist in Norwich seeing her campaigning and writing anti-slavery poems. This led to her creating (with Anna Gurney) a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society which presented in 1833 a 187,000 signed petition to parliament. In 1840 Amelia attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention where she one of only a few women featured in a commemorative painting.
Step Into The Story- a city you don’t just read about, you experience
Join Norwich Story Walks on a Her Story Walk (£10pp, private tours available) to hear all about Amelia and other important women of Norwich. And visit Opie Street where you can see a statue of Amelia Opie on the roof of Café Gelato. We highly recommend a gelato whilst you are there (a favourite too of Emma Thompson!)
Did you know Amelia was a generous philanthropist visiting and helping workhouses, prisons, hospitals and the poor?
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