Hidden Histories: The New Statesman History Podcast

Welcome to the final episode of our Hidden Histories series - The Great Forgetting: women writers before Austen. This week, Helen Lewis, Sophie Coulombeau and Liz Edwards discuss why so many of the era’s female writers are absent from the canon, why we think what we say is good is good, and how these writers still shape our idea of literature today? (Helen Lewis, Sophie Coulombeau, Liz Edwards)

Welcome to the Hidden Histories podcast. This week, Helen Lewis and our guests Sophie Coulombeau, Liz Edwards and Jennie Batchelor thrash out the impossible question: Who is the most interesting female writer of the Eighteenth Century? Liz chooses Hester Thrale Piozzi, Sophie makes the case for Frances Burney, and Jennie opts for the elusive Anonymous.

In this episode, Helen Lewis is joined by Sophie Coulombeau and Jennie Batchelor to discuss 18th century women’s involvement in radical politics. Novelists and poets from Charlotte Smith to Anna Letitia Barbau and Mary Wollstonecraft all engaged with major political questions of their day. But not everyone was confident this was a good idea.

This week, Helen Lewis is joined by Elizabeth Edwards and Sophie Coulombeau to discuss the 18th century “Bluestockings” – who were they and why did they matter? Through salons hosted by the likes of Elizabeth Montagu, “Queen of the Blues”, this small group of highly educated women helped shape a new age of sociability and creativity, ushering in greater acceptance of women as the intellectual equals of men. (Helen Lewis, Elizabeth Edwards, Sophie Coulombeau)

Welcome to the new Hidden Histories podcast - The Great Forgetting: Women Writers Before Austen. In this first episode, Helen Lewis, Sophie Coulombeau and Elizabeth Edwards question long-held assumptions about early British novels and who wrote them. For more information and shownotes see: http://bit.ly/1S90yMB

Welcome to the trailer for our new series "The Great Forgetting: women writers before Austen". Most Eighteenth Century novels were written by women. So why are the authors we remember mostly men? Helen Lewis talks to academics Sophie Coulombeau, Elizabeth Edwards and Jennie Batchelor to find out more....