Dr Gillian Dooley, an Honorary Associate Professor in English Literature at Flinders University and expert on the life of Captain Matthew Flinders, recently visited Flinders’ homeland in Lincolnshire and spoke about her various works on the life and writings of Flinders.
She visited Boston, the nearest city to Donington (where Flinders was born in 1774) on the Lincolnshire coast, and spoke to an audience of more than 100 people attached to a very active University of the Third Age group. She also visited Donington Market Place, where the local primary school choir serenaded her before she spoke to a small gathering in the craft shop (pictured at right).
Next, Dr Dooley gave another talk in the neighbouring town of Spalding, and in Partney, the home town of Flinders’ wife Ann – and where she married Matthew in 1801. “There were about 40 people in the audience, and afterwards they showed me around the church and gave me some interesting information about Ann’s family background which I hadn’t come across before,” says Dr Dooley. “Inside of the church there was also a display of drawings by local school kids who had made cat pictures out of maps of Australia!”
Beyond Flinders-related activities during her Lincolnshire visit, Dr Dooley presented a talk and concert at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, ahead of her next book She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music (due to be published in March next year), and she attended academic conferences in Cambridge, Munich and Rome.