Prof Corinne Fowler’s report into colonial history sparked a furore about ‘wokeness’ and heritage. We join her on one of the routes from her new book of rural walks that highlight how all our lives – hers included – are entwined with colonialism
Standing outside Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the drizzle, Prof Corinne Fowler seems a very unlikely looking fire starter. But that is exactly how anonymously apoplectic defenders of crown and country have tended to view her. Fowler was, in 2020, the co-author of a report into the colonial history of properties belonging to the National Trust. After which, as they say in the tabloids, all hell broke loose.
At the moment her report was published, culture war arguments about the country’s past were already primed. The statue of the slave-trading philanthropist Edward Colston had lately been toppled into Bristol harbour; Black Lives Matter marches had brought an end to lockdown; footballers were taking the knee. For some on the right, Fowler’s report became (yet another) lightning rod for their anger.
