‘The botanical letters of Georgiana Molloy’

A talk by author Bernice Barry on her new book, ‘A Lady’s Pen‘.
Duggan Pavilion, Cowaramup
28th May 2.00pm Doors open at 1.30pm for registration, book sales, …
$5 at door, WSWA members $2

Bernice will provide new information from her recent research for ‘A Lady’s Pen’, including additions to the list of species Molloy collected and details about the content of her collections, the stories of the plants. She will discuss how Molloy’s letters, and others, reveal why her collections were so important and unique, and how her work was subtly sidelined because of her gender. New research on Mangles will help to reinstate the voice that’s been missing from their long-distance, written conversation for a hundred and eighty years.

Bernice Barry is a writer and researcher with a love of history, language and literature. Originally from Cornwall in the UK, she has lived on the coast near Wooditjup (Margaret River) for twenty-one years, where her early interest in the native flora and fauna became an enduring passion. ‘The Mind That Shines’, her biography of 19th century botanical collector, Georgiana Molloy, was published by Picador in 2016. ‘A Lady’s Pen’ completes the story of Molloy’s most prolific botanical work in the southwest of WA, documented in her letters to Captain James Mangles between 1837 and 1843, the last years of her life.