Herstory Revisited

“Time is a great conference planning our end, and youth is only the past putting a leg forward.”   Djuna Barnes (1892 –1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer. She is also an LGBT+ icon, who is perhaps best known for her novel Nightwood (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction. Barnes was born in a log cabin on Storm King Mountain, near New York into a somewhat unconventional family. Her paternal grandmother, Zadel Barnes, was also a writer and journalist as well as a Women's Suffrage activist. Her father, Wald Barnes, was an unsuccessful composer, musician, and artist. An advocate of polygamy, he married Barnes's mother Elizabeth in 1889; his mistress Fanny Clark moved in with them in 1897, when Djuna was five. Djuna was the second oldest of eight children, whose father made little contribution to their upkeep. Zadel, who believed her son to be a misunderstood artistic genius, burdened herself up supporting the family both through work and throug...

Mary Boleyn (c. 1499/1500 – 1543), is most famously known as “The Other Boleyn Girl”. She was sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and one of the mistresses of Henry VIII.   Mary grew up at  Hever Castle ,  Kent (one of my favourite places, FYI). Her family were wealthy – her father was the diplomat and courtier, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Whiltshire, and her mother was the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Mary’s exact date of birth is unknown, but it is generally agreed that she was the eldest of the three surviving Boleyn children. During her early years, it is most likely that Mary was educated alongside her brother George, and her sister, Anne at  Hever Castle  in  Kent . She was given a conventional education deemed essential for young ladies of her rank and status, which included the basic principles of arithmetic, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing – as well as “feminine accomplishments” such as embroidery, etiquette, househ...

Nzingha Mbande  (1583–1663) was Queen of the  Ambundu  Kingdoms of  Ndongo  (1624–1663) and  Matamba  (1631–1663), located in present-day northern  Angola . Raised as a warrior into a ruling family, she is remembered today as a strong and fearless leader, skilled diplomat, and brave fighter. She succeeded in defending her people from Portuguese colonisation, and ruled until her death despite numerous attepmts to overthrow her during her 37 year reign. Nzingha was born into the royal family of  Ndongo  in South-West Africa round 1583. She was the daughter of King Kilombo of Ndongo. Her mother, Kengela ka Nkombe, was one of her father's slave wives and his favourite concubine. She had two sisters, and a brother, Mbandi, who acceded the throne after their father’s death. Legend has it that her mother endured a difficult labour with Nzingha. She was so named because the  umbilical cord  was wrapped around her neck (t...

“I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped.” Audrey Hepburn  (born  Audrey Kathleen Ruston ; 1929 – 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the  American Film Institute  as the  third-greatest female screen legend  in  Golden Age Hollywood . I am going to gloss over her film career and style icon status here (I’ll detail it more on the blog), because everyone knows that she was a beautiful actress. I want to share the aspects of her life which are less celebrated – her traumatic childhood, her difficult marriages, and her humanitarian efforts. Hepburn was born in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother was a Dutch Baroness and her father was a British subject born in Bohemia who had served as a British consul in the Dutch East Indies. Hepburn had a sheltered...