Harriet Martineau Lecture

The Harriet Martineau Lecture celebrates the legacy of a remarkable, world-changing woman by inviting globally renowned radical speakers to respond to her life and work. This year’s lecture will be delivered by award-winning author and the Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins on the power of culture as a lens through which to understand current conflicts.

The first Harriet Martineau Lecture was delivered by Ali Smith in May 2013 and featured a call to draw Harriet Martineau’s face onto £5 notes in protest at the decision to remove Elizabeth Fry from the same note. Since then the likes of Kate Mosse, Masha Gessen, Linton Kwesi-Johnson, Sarah Perry, Ellah P. Wakatama and Kit de Waal have given the lecture, variously exploring Martineau’s internationalism, inspiration for feminism, and role in the abolition of slavery.

Supported by The Martineau Society

Bio

Charlotte Higgins is an award-winning British author and journalist. She is the author of Greek Myths: A New Retelling. Her previous books include the acclaimed Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain, which was shortlisted for UK awards including the Samuel Johnson (now Baillie Gifford) prize for non-fiction, and Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and won the Arnold Bennett prize 2019. She is chief culture writer of the Guardian, a past winner of the Classical Association prize, and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She lives in London.

‘Higgins is a wonderful scholar, and a great story teller.’ ― Madeline Miller, author of Circe