Arts & Ideas - Lady Mary Wroth - women writer to put back on the bookshelf

Lady Mary Wroth - women writer to put back on the bookshelf

Download Lady Mary Wroth - women writer to put back on the bookshelf

Author of the first prose romance published in England in 1621, her reputation at court was ruined by her thinly veiled autobiographical writing. Visit the family home, Penshurst Place in Kent, and you can see Lady Mary Wroth's portrait, but New Generation Thinker Nandini Das says you can also find her in the pages of her book The Countess of Montgomery's Urania which places centre stage women who "love and are not afraid to love." Scandal led to her withdrawing it from sale and herself from public life.

If you are interested in more discussions about women writers you can find an Arts & Ideas podcast episode called Why We Read and the Idea of the Woman Writer which includes a discussion of both Anne Bronte and Anne Dowriche. And there is a collection of programmes about women writers on the Free Thinking programme website

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Published on Friday, 28th February 2020.

Available Podcasts from Arts & Ideas

Subscribe to Arts & Ideas

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Arts & Ideas webpage.