Robert Martineau, a member of the Martineau family in Birmingham, set up the engineering company Martineau and Smith. Bessy White has some family letters in which the company is mentioned. In 2025, she published a book about her great-grandfather, Arthur Toulmin Smith. You can read about the Martineau family on the family page, where you […]| Martineau Society
On 23rd July at 6 pm at The Octagon Chapel in Norwich, Valerie Sanders of The University of Hull will present an overview of the life and work of Harriet Martineau. Harriet Martineau lived in Norwich until the age of 32, and then went on to become a radical writer, advocating women’s rights, anti-slavery, fairer […]| Martineau Society
Val McDermid delivered a memorable tribute to Harriet Martineau to a sold out audience. The annual Harriet Martineau Lecture, sponsored by the Martineau Society, was a big success. It took place on May 24th 2025 in St Peter Mancroft Church as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The National Centre for Writing have issued […]| Martineau Society
Click here for 2025 Tynemouth Conference Programme| Martineau Society
ANNUAL MARTINEAU SOCIETY MEETING 2025 Dates: 22-25th June 2025 Venue: Grand Hotel Tynemouth Address: Grand Parade, Tynemouth, NE30 4ER Website: https://www.grandhoteltynemouth.co.uk Tourist Website: https://www.visitnorthtyneside.com/destinations/destination/tynemouth/ Accessibility: Wheelchair access Registration: from 5pm on Sunday 22 June 2025 Conference Organiser: Valerie Sanders – V.R.Sanders@hull.ac.uk or sandersvalerie56@gmail.com Introduction The 2025 Martineau Society Conference ...| Martineau Society
Hot off the press! Oxford University Press has commissioned new editions of Harriet Martineau’s two novels, Deerbrook (1839) and The Hour and the Man (1841), for its World’s Classics Series. Valerie Sanders is preparing the first modern edition of The Hour and the Man, a novel that had a major impact on the Abolitionist movement […]| Martineau Society
‘Amazingly. this is our 50th issue of the Martineau Society Journal (if you include all the previous numbers called Martineau Society Newsletter).(…)’ ‘While we can contribute this (i.e. a shift in themes) to a significant shift in member’s interests and academic backgrounds, it also says something about the real durability of Harriet’s concerns; and the […]| Martineau Society
Martineau Society member, David Hamilton, writes: I recently came across an anomaly in Harriet Martineau’s Biographical Sketches (1876 edition). As part of her journalistic endeavours, Harriet wrote a series of ‘autobiographical fragments’ or obituaries for the Daily News. Her fifty sketches were obituaries of notable nineteenth century figures and included Frances Beaufort. I had known […]| Martineau Society
The ITV programme DNA Journey with Ancestry features one of Harriet Martineau’s descriptions of Ambleside. The quotes are set in the context of Ricky Tomlinson’s Lake District connection and his great grandfather’s shop in the Market Place in Ambleside. With this quote from her about social justice and poverty: ‘Victorian author Harriet Martineau described Ambleside […]| Martineau Society
Two of our members, Stuart Hobday and Gaby Weiner, are giving a talk about Harriet Martineau in Norwich at 3pm on October 24th 2024 in The Forum Library in Norwich. It will focus on Harriet’s relationship with 19th Century America and is based on their recent book ‘Reintroducing Harriet Martineau’ (Routledge 2024). Presented by the […]| Martineau Society