Herbert Illuminations - George Eliot at 200 - and the Coventry Connection

Mary Ann Evans spent the first 21 years of her life at Griff, midway between Bedworth and Nuneaton.

(Illustration by Samuel Laurence)

Her father was the land agent to the Newdigate family at Arbury Hall. Mary Ann was a clever girl who did well at schools in Nuneaton and Coventry. In 1841 she moved with her father to Bird Grove in Coventry. In the eight years she lived in the city Mary Ann developed her huge intellectual appetite for learning, scholarship, foreign languages and music.

The talk and slide shows relates the details of her life and concludes with a special section on Eliot’s Coventry connections and some readings from her novels.

Drop in | £3