Aphra Behn: Public vote for Canterbury statue of female playwright

A public vote has opened to choose the design for a statue of a prolific female playwright.

Aphra Behn, born in 1640, was one of the most prolific writers of her era and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

A fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 for a bronze memorial in her home city of Canterbury, Kent, was launched in June 2021.

Half of the money has now been raised and the public are being asked to vote for one of four final designs.

Aphra Behn was an "LGBTQ+ icon", according to the organisation set up to campaign for the statue.

The Canterbury Commemoration Society said she wrote "beautiful, funny, sensitive love poetry to other women".

Charlotte Cornell, the campaign's organiser, said: "We're touring the whole country because we want everyone to know that Behn is the grandmother of English literature.

"She is the woman who started it all. Without Behn there's no Austen, there's no Eliot, there's no Brontë sisters.

"She was the first one. That's why she's such a big deal."

Stewart Ross, chairman of the Canterbury Commemoration Society said: "We are righting a great injustice.

"She was written out of history because of the changing expectations around the role of women.

"We are putting her back where she belongs."

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is backing the campaign. All four selected designs have been cast in miniature in bronze and are touring the UK throughout July.

Online voting closes at the end of August.

Organisers hope the statue will be in place in Canterbury by 2024.

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