Last night we had the latest instalment of the Public Lecture series in partnership with York Literature Festival. We heard award-winning author of Room and The Wonder Emma Donoghue in conversation with writer and friend Fiona Shaw, discussing her new book ‘Learned by Heart’.
The audience were captivated as Emma read an excerpt from her book which is a remarkable piece of historical fiction capturing the relationship between Yorkshire’s Anne Lister (or Gentleman Jack) and her first love, Eliza Raine.
From the perspective of Eliza, a fascinating but previously unexplored true historical figure, the book explores dizzying first love in the backdrop of 1800’s York.
Scenes from the book feel close to home, as we see Eliza and Anne attend the York Races and see the first ever female jockey lose her race due to slipping off the horse as she was forced to ride side saddle, exploring the Abbey’s ruins (now Museum Gardens), and the heart-breaking decline of Eliza’s mental state as she is admitted to an institution on Clifton Green.
‘Learned by Heart’ is built on the bones of painstakingly researched history, with Emma spending lockdown reading newly transcribed letters between Eliza and Anne, trawling through Anne Lister’s famous diaries, and once lockdown lifted, even visiting the rooms where Anne and Eliza would have lived where coincidentally, among 18th century graffiti she even found the words “shun men” scratched onto the historic windows.
Emma and Fiona ended the talk to rapturous applause, as a huge queue formed for Emma to personally sign copies of her book.
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