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To say Hannah More has been an inspiration to me is a bit of an understatement. I first happened upon her when I was browsing the biography and fiction sections of Penrith’s Koorong around 12 years ago. I picked up Karen Swallow Prior’s “Fierce Convictions” because I loved the aesthetic of the front cover (shallow, I know). A beautiful girl with a bun in a teal and navy dress, walking away, seemingly in a hurry or on a mission of some kind. (Those Christian romance covers always got me.) I bought the book, read a few chapters about this “Evangelical Jane Austen” with mild interest– and then shelved it. It took a few years before I recognised the true value of Ms Hannah More, and this time I returned to the biography (and indeed, went straight to the source= her writings) with insatiable fervour. How did her poem “Slavery” help stop the slave trade? How did her “Cheap Repository Tracts” curb the French Revolution from spreading to England? Were her Sunday Schools and charity work really as successful as it seemed in educating the poor and lifting poverty standards? Did Hannah also manage to do something I’ve always wanted to do – popularise didacticism in literature and make it somewhat normative and attractive? Don’t tell me she also changed the deeply ingrained culture of ‘marriage for wealth’ through writing a mere novel! Anyway, I wanted to know it all! I was knee-deep in eighteenth century fiction at university and genuinely overwhelmed by this lady’s zeal for righteousness in her writing. It’s not that she was perfect, but her efforts over the course of her life were inspiring. I simply just couldn’t find anyone as prolific and diversely influential as Hannah More – someone who had this magical reach into all social classes through her writing, philanthropy and advocacy. She was truly an Esther, raised up “for such a time as this”. Why don’t many people know about her today?
Anyway, I’ve decided to make it my project this year to popularise Hannah More’s life and diverse output. She gives a great example to redeem every area of life for God, and this is especially inspirational for young and up-and-coming men and women. I’m starting with one of her lighter, minor works called “Sir Eldred of the Bower”, which is a tragicomic romantic tale about a medieval knight and young maiden. It explores the challenges the knight faces as he reaches a new exciting stage in life. I have created a 60 page study guide to this work which is colourful, engaging and a good introduction to Hannah More’s writings, but also to poetry/ ballads and to medieval life. Please take a chance to check it out and benefit from the Easter special of $10 (RRP:$15): https://payhip.com/b/0VO64