Lifting the Veil

Our collective imagination is haunted by a certain image of the artist: a solitary bard, brooding alone, awaiting a burst of inspiration from a mysterious and magical muse. We see the person with the creative spirit as one who stands above and apart from the common lot, a secular priest who mediates between regular folks […]

Ordinary Woman, Extraordinary Life

Surely no one expected anything to come of the fourth daughter born in 1745 to the poor school master of a charity school in the tiny village of Fishponds, outside Bristol England. Girls, particularly those of the working class in the highly stratified society of eighteenth century England didn’t have great expectations. Most of them […]