George Eliot
Introduction
The photograph on this page of George Eliot by Stephen McKay as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
George Eliot
Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 9 Nov 2022
George Eliot, whose real name was Mary Ann Evans, is one of England's best known novelists and undoubtedly Nuneaton's most famous daughter. She was born on the Arbury Hall Estate in 1819 where her father was the manager for the Newdegate family. In later years she lived in London but most of her work was set in the Midlands. Her statue by John Letts, in the centre of Nuneaton, was unveiled in 1986. The statue was the subject of a curious national news story in 2020 when a group of men surrounded it apparently to protect it against a Black Lives Matter protest taking place nearby. This was in the aftermath of the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol and various threats to other statues depicting men with links to slavery. In fact, Evans was a supporter of the anti-slavery movement and there is no evidence that her statue in Nuneaton was ever in any danger.
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Image Location
Latitude
52.523147
Longitude
-1.467157