AN AWARD winning writer and comedian is coming to Whitchurch to perform a play celebrating female working class authors over the last 100 years.

Ruth E Cockburn will be performing her play 'Miss Nobodies' in Whitchurch Rugby Club in Edgley Road on Wednesday, September 28, which celebrates female working class voices.

During the last couple of years she was carrying out research, Ruth was made aware of a writer and activist, Ethel Carnie Holdsworth who is cited as the first female working class published author in the UK after her first novel, 'Miss Nobody' was published in 1913.

Ruth had never hear of her and said she was shocked this author had not been celebrated more.

She added: "Being a Lancashire lass myself, I was shocked that such an important figure hadn’t be celebrated more.

"I come from Blackpool, a place that I love yet has its own socioeconomic issues.

"If I had heard about a woman that taught herself to read whilst working from the age of 11 in the mills, went onto fight for women’s rights and create amazing poetry and stories, I think I’d have listened in history lessons a bit more.

"As much as the corn laws and crop rotation is important to history, I reckon radical women would have been more my cup of tea.

"So, the idea for the show came about.

"Reading Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s first novel 'Miss Nobody' I was struck by the humour of it.

"It was like reading a Jenny Eclair book, rich with dark humour and beautiful language.

"As much as I love the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen, working class women like Ethel Carnie Holdsworth talked about the romance of choice, not the romance of marriage.

"It seemed so remarkable to me. Ethel talks of what it’s like to be a woman in difficult situations with such passion, I’d never heard the female experience talked about like that.

"I wanted to do something just like that – make a show that people watch and recognise themselves."

The event has been organised by the non-profit organisation Arts Alive.