Who was Aphra Behn?

Aphra Behn was an extraordinary woman: the first professional woman writer in English, a playwright, poet, a spy for Charles II, a traveller, a wit and a LGBTQ+ icon.

She showed women that their words had power. She has inspired generations of other women to write for the page and the stage.

Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko was a ground-breaking work which made a black African slave into the hero of a work of fiction - unheard of for the time! Some people also claim Oroonoko is the first novel to be written in English. Between 1670 and 1690, she was also the most prolific playwright in Britain.

But as time went on, tastes changed and Aphra’s Behn’s poems and plays were considered too rude and bawdy by our Victorian ancestors.