Memorial of the month
Learn about the lives and legacies of those remembered in the Abbey and discover how people from all walks of life have ended up in the nation's church.
Join a member of staff at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours for a 10-minute talk about one of the thousands of memorials or graves that can be found around the Abbey. Please be aware this offer can be subject to cancellation at short notice.
These talks are available to those with a ticket to visit Westminster Abbey.
Writing in a period marked by civil war, revolution and restoration of the English monarchy, John Milton’s works engage deeply with questions of faith, politics, liberty and authority. Milton’s life and legacy also offer a powerful lens for discussing disability history. He became blind later in life and continued to produce some of his greatest work, including Paradise Lost.
Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring Milton and how his life and writing explore themes of faith, politics and disability.
Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours. We will meet in Poets’ Corner.
Aphra Behn was one of the most significant writers of the Restoration period and one of the first English women to earn a living through her writing. Her plays, poetry and prose engage with politics, gender, power and social expectation in ways that still resonate today.
Her burial provides an opportunity to reflect on memory and absence at Westminster Abbey, inviting visitors to examine whose voices have historically been celebrated and to think why are there no women writers buried in Poets’ Corner.
Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring Aphra Behn’s legacy and what her burial in the cloisters can tell us about literary memory, gender and social history.
Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours. We will meet in Poets’ Corner.
