The Manchester scientist who picked flowers for Charles Darwin

Like so many women in our local and national history, she has slipped out of the history books and out of our memories

Good morning members - today’s story is about an extraordinary Manchester woman who deserves to be better known.

Before we get to that: I’ve been thinking about how to make the gift memberships a bit cheaper for existing members, because Substack (the platform we use to publish The Mill) doesn’t allow us to apply a discount to them.

• And this is how we will do it: a good old-fashioned 2-for-1. If you buy a gift membership for one person, just email joshi@manchestermill.co.uk with the name of a second and we will send them a membership too. So your two gift memberships will cost £35 each if you buy one £70 annual plan.

• Just hit the button below and remember to email me straight after with the email of the second recipient, who will get their confirmation email on Christmas Day.

At the end of today’s newsletter, we have a mini-poll about what we should work on next and some other bits of housekeeping. Please have a look at those, and enjoy the story — Rebecca Batley’s first for The Mill.