Book tickets here.
Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825): 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of Anna Barbauld’s death in Stoke Newington. She died on March 9th 1825 and is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Church St. Her epitaph on the commemorative tablet in Newington Green Chapel declares that she had “wit, genius, poetic talent, and a vigorous understanding”, and she put these “high gifts” to the service of “humanity, peace, and justice”. She spoke out against the slave trade, religious bigotry, tyrannical government, and predatory war-making. She was eloquent in prose, as in Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation (1793) and poetry. Her long poem 1811 (1812) which begins, “Still the loud death drum, thundering from afar, / O’er the vext nations pours the storm of war”, is generally considered her masterpiece. Has Anna Barbauld anything useful to say to us today when humanity, peace and justice are under such strain?
Norma Clarke, whose books include Dr Johnson’s Women and The Rise and Fall of the Woman of Letters, will introduce a radical Anna Barbauld for our times. “If ever there was a writer whose wisdom is made to be useful in the time of need, it is Mrs Barbauld”, was the opinion of the Victorian jurist Sir James Mackintosh. Her modern biographer William McCarthy (Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment, 2008) likens her to Joan of Arc, calls her an “ecofeminist far ahead of her time”, “an uncommonly interesting literary figure”, and reminds us that she was often compared to Samuel Johnson because of the nature of her career and the respect she was accorded. Her writings, McCarthy observes, “surprise by their modernity, their relevance to needs of the present moment”.
Local historian Ken Worpole will join Norma to chair the Q&A. Ken is a writer and social historian, and long-standing member of the Hackney Society. His latest book, Brightening from the East: essays on landscape & memory was published earlier this year.
Location: Abney Park Chapel
This event is part of Abney Park Trust's 2025 "Radical Writers" festival. The festival explores the works of writers inspired by Abney's and Hackney's diverse history of radical thought and action. We’ll be joined by scribes from across an array of genres, disciplines and backgrounds. And we’ll be thinking about radicalism in many senses – old, new, cultural, political, social and beyond. To see the full line up and book tickets for other events, visit abneypark.org/radicalwriters.
Special thanks to our sponsor, local butcher and deli Meat N16, for their generous support of the festival.