Stories
During 2018, we asked people to send us stories to recreate Annie’s Arboretum, a plantation created by the Blathwayt family, who invited suffragettes to recuperate from imprisonment in their Somerset home. The suffragettes planted trees to memorialise their work in the movement. However, it was destroyed in the 1960s.
Each story we received has been assigned a suffragette. Stories will be uploaded to this site from December 2018, to mark the centenary of women voting for the first time. In most cases, we will publish stories on the date the suffragette planted her original tree in the lost plantation.
We are grateful to everyone who submitted a story. The authors listed below and also pupils at Broadland Ormiston Academy and Langley School, whose stories have kindly been provided by these schools for display on our website.
The authors range from established writers such as Katy Darby and Sara Taylor to student writers to people who are interested in the suffragettes. There are of course several pieces of historical fiction, drawing inspiration directly from women included in the Blathwayt plantation. However, there are also stories inspired by figures as diverse as Katherine Parr and Joan Baez. There are contemporary screenplays, creative non-fiction, fables and counter-factual history. Many stories are inspired by mothers, grandmothers and friends.
We hope you enjoy reading these stories in 2018 and during 2019. Thank you to all the authors. It has been a rewarding experience watching the plantation take on a new form in your stories.
Harriet Avery read Harriet's story
Pat Boynes read Pat's story
Romana Canneti read Romana's story
Jenny Corser read Jenny's story
Katy Darby read Katy's story
Elizabeth Feretti read Elizabeth's story
Victoria Finan read Victoria's story
Lea Fletcher read Lea's story
Simon Flower read Simon's story
Peter Goulding read Peter's story
Liam Hogan read Liam's story
Sarah Hopkinson read Sarah's story
Zoe Kelly read Zoe's story
Maria Kyle read Maria's story
Yin Lim read Yin's story
Lourdes Mackey read Lourdes's story
Justine Mann read Justine's story
Cara Marks read Cara's story
Grace Maxwell Brown read Grace's story
Benjamin Stickney Morrison read Benjamin's story
Valerie Morse read Valerie's story
Amy Pattison read Amy's story
Saloni Prasad read Saloni's story
Victoria Proctor read Victoria's story
Petra Rau read Petra's story
DC Restaino read DC's story
Jules Robbins read Jules' story
Sally Shippam read Sally's story
Henrietta Shirazu read Henrietta's story
Fiona Sinclair
Janet Swinney read Janet's story
Sara Taylor read Sara's story
Debbie Vince read Debbie's story
Max Westmoreland read Max's story
Rebekah Woolmer
Hannah Wright read Hannah's story
Maggie Yaxley Smith read Maggie's story
The stories will be available on the website for at least five years, unless requests are received from relevant individuals to remove one or more of them. For more details see the website terms and conditions.