Speaking Up: The Quiet Power of Anne Bronte
In this, the third in a series of special fundraising events, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed will be dropping into the Brontë Lounge to talk to Helen Meller about some of the issues raised by Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, often hailed as one of the first feminist novels.
Samira is The Brontë Society's Creative Partner for Anne Brontë's bicentenary celebrations. She presents Front Row on Radio 4, Newswatch on BBC1 and the podcast How I Found My Voice. Her documentary series Art of Persia on BBC4 - was the first major western series to be shot in Iran for 40 years. In March she was named the British Broadcasting Press Guild's Audio Presenter of the Year.
Previously a presenter and correspondent at Channel 4 News, Samira won the Stonewall Broadcast of the Year Award in 2009 for her film on so-called "corrective" rape in South Africa, and made the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary series Islam Unveiled. Samira has also worked as a reporter on the Today programme, Newsnight, as a News Correspondent and a news anchor for BBC World and for Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. She covered the OJ Simpson case while the BBC's Los Angeles Correspondent. She writes regularly for newspapers and magazines including The Guardian and New Humanist.
Earlier this year, Samira won a landmark equal pay employment tribunal against the BBC for sex discrimination. She has said that she re-read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall while preparing for it and "felt Anne's voice and sense of indignation" speak to her across the centuries.
Tickets cost £5. Event starts at 7.30pm UK time (GMT+1).