Friday 25 October, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church

The first professional woman writer in English grew up in Canterbury! The city celebrates and honours the incredible playwright, poet and spy: Aphra Behn.

Putting to bed centuries of rumour, half-baked biographies and sensationalist gossip, Charlotte Cornell explores Aphra Behn's childhood in the city of Canterbury. What was it like in Seventeenth Century Kent? How did the Civil War change society here? Where does the name Aphra come from? Why did she never mention she came from Canterbury? Was she truly ashamed of her past?

Charlotte Cornell is a teacher, schools workshop facilitator and local city councillor and is finishing her PhD at the University of Kent. She is also vicechair of the Canterbury Commemoration Society.