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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 4th February
Fourth February and another no show. So off we go back into the seventeenth century nd meet Mary Davys, 1674-1732. Irish/English playwright and novelist, when it was still pretty hard for a woman to get taken seriously. Here is a collection of delicious quotes: Is there such a thing as Justice in Man? No Faith…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 2nd February
I’ve not been able to find anyone with the 2nd of February as their birthday but I have two for tomorrow, so let’s celebrate Elizabeth Blackwell, 3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910 the first woman to be awarded a degree in medicine in the USA. Blackwell was actually British, born in Bristol; when she…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 1st February
Here we are at the first day of LGBT history month and I don’t has a lesbian with a birthday to celebrate with you. How Annoying! So here’s another remarkable woman whose date of birth I do not know. Katherine Chidley, was married in 1616 an last heard of in 1653, but neither her birth…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 30th January
Today we celebrate Anne Clifford 30 January 1590 – 22 March 1676 I actually have a copy of her diary tucked away somewhere, but I haven’t yet got round to reading it. She had a bit of a tough time, her first husband Richard Sackville Earl of Dorset forced her to entertain his mistress at…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 29th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Robin Morgan, who is my first living invitee to the party. I did consider keeping it strictly historical, but she had and has such a big impact it seemed unreasonable to leave her out. Robin is the editor of Sisterhood is Powerful, (1970) one of those books that change the world,…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 13th January
Today’s birthday girl is the ‘Last of the Red Hot Mamas’ – Sophie Tucker 1884-1966 A Vaudeville and Broadway star of her time, who started out (not her idea) blacked up, Sophie ‘came out’ as a nice jewish girl when her makeup box was stolen on the way to a gig. The audience was delighted…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 7th January
No-one is owning up to being born on 7th January, so another ‘who knows?’ And because it’s wild weather I thought we’d go for a pirate. Mary Read. Cross-dressing lover of Anne Bonny, and several men, a proper swashbuckler, served in the King’s army, ran a pub and later became a pirate, but no one…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 6th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Stella Benson, 1892-1933 a feminist, writer and traveller (particularly America and China). She was a friend of Virginia Woolf, and of Winifred Holtby. She wrote travel books, poetry, novels and short stories. She died rather young, but I can’t help feeling she got a lot of fun from life while she…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party January 3rd
Today’s birthday girl is Henry Handel Richardson (don’t you love a male nom-de-plume?) known to her family as Ethel Robertson. Born 3rd January 1870 HH wrote the lovely and semi-autobiographical coming of age novel The Getting of Wisdom about Laura, a young Australian girl sent away to school where she finds it hard to fit…
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Remember
For by my glee might many men have laughed, And of my weeping something had been left, Which must die now. I mean the truth untold, The pity of war, the pity war distilled. Strange Meeting, Wilfred Owen For the past week we have been asked to remember: Remember, Remember the fifth of November Gunpowder…
Cherry Potts, Writer 