Sylvia Pankhurst

Natural Born Rebel

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This event took place on 27 October 2020

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Sylvia Pankhurst
Natural Born Rebel

Watch event again now

This event took place on 27 October 2020

Sylvia Pankhurst was born into one of Britain's most famous families but she always carved her own way. As well as a militant campaigner for women's suffrage, she was a gifted artist and orator, a designer, newspaper editor and radical visionary.

Her activism landed her in Holloway prison where she was tortured, and her notes from this episode are featured in our upcoming Unfinished Business exhibition. Pankhurst's life of campaigning led her to America, Soviet Russia, Scandinavia, Europe and East Africa.

Biographer Rachel Holmes shares her adventures from inside the British Library’s Unfinished Business exhibition space, in conversation with Shami Chakrabarti.

This event was part of Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, a UK-wide exhibition by the British Library and public libraries.

Speakers

  • Rachel Holmes

    Author

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  • Shami Chakrabarti

    Politician and Human Rights Activist

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