Harriet Martineau first became an event at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in 2013 as part of The Harriet Martineau Lectures in the City of Literature programme, organised by the National Centre for Writing. And the series started with a bang! Ali Smith delivered the first lecture and for anyone in the audience (including us) – goodness we were in for a surprise. Harriett was the world’s first female retained journalist. She was a progressive thinker and bestselling writer and she spent much of her life fighting for women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, economic fairness and racial equality. In general, she wanted a more just society. How she never quite got the worldwide recognition she deserved, no one quite knows. But there’s still time. Harriet Martineau wrote about and became well known (from 1832) for her stories about how the economic conditions of the time impacted on ordinary people. She travelled the world. In 1834 she visited America for 2 years where she became involved with the anti-slavery cause. A subject she wrote about all through her life. She wrote travel books on America, the Middle East (mentioned in Ali’s lecture) and fiction. As well as an autobiography which was posthumously published in 1877. Her friends and acquaintances included Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Charles Dickens. As well as Princess Victoria who went on to be crowned Queen Victoria – Harriet attended her coronation in 1838. Her character quite something – described by the sisters of Charles Darwin to him in a letter as “a great Lion in London”. The Ali Smith lecture (and all the lectures that followed) will fill you in with all the incredible detail. This will be 60 minutes you will really enjoy. We can’t say enough to do justice to the works and character of Harriet Martineau. Her story is exciting, sometimes amusing and very inspirational. Check out the link in our bio to watch the lecture series 🔝 #harrietmartineau #writer #author #nationalcentreforwriting #norwich #cityofstories #UNESCOCityofLiterature #UEA #literature #travelwriter #history #historiccity #dragonhall #lovegreatbritain
