Women Writing on the Devon Land: A County's Women Who Wrote - circa 1965

'The recognised notion of the literary history of southwest England’s C19/early C20 texts is of a distinctly male lineage, and indeed even now the prevailing view is that the ‘Victorian manuscript of the Westcountry' [i] was written in the context of a patriarchal culture'. Extract 1 The Canon - or Not?  From  Writing Women on the Devon Land See The Canon - or Not?  Cover of Williamson's Tarka the Otter See also From the Devon Ridge Where a Book Began

I ... Ilfracombe Scenes around Ilfracombe Photo Julie Sampson A - Z of Devon Places and Women Writers  Said to be Rev., John Chanter and his wife Charlotte Kingsley Chanter outside their vicarage home in Ilfracombe. (Photo copy from Ilfracombe Museum)          Ilfracombe has enticed various women writers and in this A-Z it was the obvious choice to represent 'I'. Most famously,  although she was a visitor to Devon,   George Eliot stayed in the town in 1856, at the beginning of her literary career. Her  contemporary,  Charlotte Chanter , daughter of Reverend Charles Kingsley , and sister of the more famous authors Charles, Henry and George was local and is the central focus of this blog piece. Charlotte  wrote several novels, including   Over the Cliffs   as well as a travel memoir,  Ferney Combes , 1856, an unusual book about her driving tour with husband across Devon looking for ferns. Charlotte Chanter (1828-1882) in 1856 wrote a short ‘guide’

Hartland Abbey  © Copyright  Roger Cornfoot  and licensed for reuse under this  Creative Commons Licence               A-Z of Devon Places and Devon Women Writers Her-Story at Hartland        My choice of Hartland for 'H' in this A-Z of Devon places associated with Devon women writers is twofold; I have two 'Devon' women in mind. They lived centuries apart and, for different reasons, both of their lives and specific connections with Hartland are swathed in mystery. They are  Elizabeth Stucley Northmore , who was a C20 writer and the very much earlier  Gytha , the C11 Danish noblewoman who spent part of her life in Devon, and became mother of kings and queens.          Not much appears to be known about either Gytha or Elizabeth; but they share certain characteristics, especially their upper-class ancestries.         Fifteen or so years before she escaped from Exeter down the river Exe and from thence more or less out of his or her story, Gytha mother o

A - Z of Devon Places and Women Writers G is Going to Gittisham The G parish in this A-Z had to be Gittisham, birthplace of Devon's most notorious and eccentric female 'writer' 'prophetess', Joanna Southcott.  Around Gittisham Photo Julie Sampson I have written about Joanna both in my book, and in my other blog, see   Woman Clothed in the Sun at Scrapblog whilst a poem about her was published in the collection Tessitura .  I'm not going to make more comment here except to say that l ike her contemporary, Mary Willcocks aka 'Caraboo', from Witheridge, Joanna Southcott is fascinating. I find her totally bizarre and yet compelling, perhaps in part because her family lived only a few miles from a district where many of my own ancestors were based. When I read that she had over 100,000 followers (in the C19 that is a LOT), I can not help but wonder if a few of my forefathers and foremothers were drawn into her orbit.  Book Blurb abou

    A - Z of Devon Places and Women Writers There's Rosemary There's Rue by Winifred Fortescue Photo Julie Sampson F for All, or Which ... Not Farringdon, Fremington, Feniton, Frithelstock but FILLEIGH        In contrast with Exeter, which I chose to represent E in this alphabet round up of Devon places associated with women writers, the choice for F was a challenge. There are few parishes in the county whose names which begin with F, and of those, as far as I am yet aware there are not any women authors who are linked with them. If you reading this know of a women writer who lived in, stayed at, wrote about or had any other link with one of Devon's few parishes beginning with 'F', please do get in touch.          And, whereas Exeter's links with our county's women authors are multiple (again as far as I am yet aware), Filleigh only connects with one writer. And not only was  she  not born in Devon, but her association with the county

Exeter Environs A - Z of Devon Places & Women Writers  E is Easy         Well, at first glance, Exeter 'for E' seems an easy choice of places for this A-Z of Devon women writers,  in the sense that many writers linked with Devon were also connected with the city. But, when I sat down to begin writing this piece I realised that actually Exeter may be one of the hardest of this A-Z of Devon places. In other words, perhaps too many of the writers on my lists were closely associated with Exeter! It would be possible to have a whole blog devoted just to them.  I've found information that shows us women writing in one way or other from the earliest historical records right up to the mid C20. In the book I'm completing, Exeter is threaded like a gem throughout the text as a central county hub, which connects individuals to one another and through the centuries. This is no surprise of course, as Exeter represents a historical slice of time for Devon.