Aphra Behn statue in Canterbury honours England's first professional female writer

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On Canterbury's High Street stands a statue of Aphra Behn, a woman who defied societal constraints and indelibly shaped the landscape of English literature as the first woman in England to achieve financial independence through her writing.

Born in Canterbury in 1640, Behn went on to work as a playwright, poet, novelist, and even a spy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. As the first female writer in England to make an independent career through writing, overcoming the 17th-century patriarchal barriers, Behn’s writing itself challenged the societal norms of the time. Her novel, "Oroonoko," critically explored slavery and colonialism, inspiring generations of authors and activists.

The statue of Behn does not depict her as the established literary figure she became, but as a teenager, as she embarked on her journey from Canterbury to London. Much like Behn herself, the statue is more than meets the eye, for many of its features allude to the multifaceted roles she assumed throughout her life. In one hand she holds a book, while the other, concealed behind her back, holds a theatre mask. As well as alluding to her gifts as a playwright, it may, alongside the scroll concealed within the statue's sleeve, hint at her exploits as a spy. The bottle of ink and its accompanying quill are suspended from her waist in recognition of her prolific literary career, whilst, at the statue’s base, a quote from Virginia Woolf acknowledges Behn’s lasting legacy.