In collaboration with the University of Northumbria.

Romantic poet Susanna Blamire (1747-1794) was a prolific Cumbria-based writer who explored topics including healthcare, religion and travel in both verse and prose. Little of her body of work was published during her lifetime and over the centuries she has faded into obscurity – despite being named ‘unquestionably the best female writer of her age’. Blamire’s writing captured both her lived experience of managing her own chronic-ill health and her work as a medical practitioner.

Over the last 25 years the Wordsworth Trust has been working with Christopher Hugh Maycock, Blamire’s descendent and biographer (A Passionate Poet, Hypatia Press 2003; Selected Poems, Bookcase, 2008), to preserve her surviving manuscript works. Her writings not only reveal the hidden history of women’s medical work in the 18th century but form a starting point for exploring what good healthcare looks like in past, present and future.

Exploring topics including the experience of illness and disability in the late 18th century, how women influenced healthcare while being barred from medical school, and how creativity can interact with wellbeing, our speakers will also take an in-depth look at Blamire’s life and showcase manuscripts and objects from the Wordsworth Trust’s collection.

Tickets: https://wordsworth.org.uk/blog/events/susanna-blamire/