Lit & Phil's anniversary writing challenge
Who can bring the mysterious Mrs Affleck to life?
As part of its bicentenary celebrations, Newcastle’s Lit & Phil has set a creative writing challenge in a bid to draw one of its more mysterious figures out of the shadows of history.
It was men – of course – who in 1793 established the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne as a “conversation club” and who commissioned a building to accommodate its growing library and collection of artefacts.
The building, now popularly known as the Lit & Phil, opened to members in 1825.
They would all have been men, and many of them important (perhaps even self-important) members of North East society.
Women, according to Lit & Phil librarian Kay Easson, were admitted as ‘reading members’ from the early 19th Century – “but it wasn’t promoted and the women didn’t have the right to vote”.
But there was one woman who would have been present daily in those early years. Mrs Affleck, according to the Lit & Phil accounts, was taken on as an employee in 1803, some years before the building was a twinkle in any bearded gentleman’s eye.
“On August 26, 1803, Mr Turner proposed that Mrs Affleck be employed to clean the rooms occupied by the library and this was agreed,” says Kay.
That was William Turner, Unitarian minister, educator and anti-slavery campaigner, who was also one of the main founders of the Lit & Phil, of which he was secretary until 1833.
“We assume she must have been known to William Turner. Was she a Unitarian like him? We just don’t know,” says Kay.
“But we know she was employed from 1803 and was here when the building opened in 1825 although it appears she left at the end of that year.”
Intriguing references to her duties appear in the Society accounts, including a final reference in the accounts for 1825-26 that she was paid two pounds, 12 shillings and sixpence for “cleaning” and a further 16 shillings and fourpence “for washing towels, soap, &c”.
Significantly she was also paid 15 shillings “for half a year’s attendance” – after which no further reference to her can be found.
Kay and other Lit & Phil sleuths have tried to track her down but to no avail. No reference was ever made to her first name, although records of the time outside the Lit & Phil have uncovered a few Afflecks in Newcastle at that time, including a Mary and a Margaret.
Was one of them the Lit & Phil cleaner? Who knows?
But Kay is not only intrigued but convinced she was a significant and trusted member of staff in the earliest days.
Evidence for this comes with a reference to her being given a key in 1806. It was in fact “ordered that another key be procured as soon as possible” so that the librarian (a Mr Marshall) could keep one and Mrs Affleck the other – and no-one else was to be entrusted with them.
There’s another reference to her duties including the “cleaning and taking care of the apparatus”.
“We had an apparatus collection, including air pumps and sprockets and all sorts of things, that was used for scientific demonstrations,” says Kay.
“It’s reasonable to assume only a highly responsible person would have been allowed near that stuff.”
Rigorous inquiry having drawn a blank, time to hand matters over to the imagination and to creative writers who are being challenged to come up with a monologue titled Mrs Affleck’s Affliction.
As Kay says: “She was a real person and is one of those people we’ve been aware of over the years but not known anything about. So it’s about time to uncover her story, whether true or not.”
The winning monologue – for which the writer will receive £1,000 – will be performed at the Lit & Phil on Friday, July 18 as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations.
Performed by a professional actress and directed by Cinzia Hardy, Mrs Affleck’s Affliction is also to be filmed.
The competition is for North East-based writers and entries must be between 1,500 and 2,000 words.
The details can all be found on the Lit & Phil website but questions entrants are asked to consider include these…
“What were her thoughts on leaving? Did she in fact ever leave? They say many ghosts inhabit our precious library. Perhaps she is still with us and has observed life in the building for 200 years.
“She must have seen so much in her time, the great and good, the dull and the amusing.
“She would have witnessed experiments, magnificent as well as misguided; heard papers being read, fascinating and tedious. There must have been much more to her than we know from our scant records.”
Writers are urged to be inspired by the mysterious Mrs Affleck. As the Lit & Phil urges: “Let her fuel your imagination.”
The competition has been sponsored by the Henfrey Charitable Trust and by a lady from Lancaster who visited the Lit & Phil for the first time recently and was so inspired by the place and the idea of Mrs Affleck that she donated what Kay gratefully alludes to as “a substantial sum of money”.
The visitor, while wishing to remain anonymous, says: “A marvellous concept to view the Lit & Phil through the eyes of a woman at the heart of the Lit & Phil but on a lower social scale to the male philanthropists responsible for its foundation and function.
“Also a marvellous opportunity for local writers to do some research, exercise their imagination and demonstrate their talents.”
The closing date for entries is Monday, May 12.