I ACCIDENTALLY STARTED A MINISTRY.
It wasn't entirely planned.
There was no official appointment, no government funding and certainly no one handing me a very important-looking key.
There was just me, a growing collection of extraordinary women from history and one question I couldn't stop asking:
How have I never heard of her?
I'm Valerie. A presenter, interviewer/moderator, public speaking coach, storyteller, art history aficionado, gemmologist & goldsmith and someone who has spent a considerable part of her life studying culture & art and asking people questions.
I've always been fascinated by the stories behind the stories. The things that don't make it into the official biography: the doubts, the ambitions, the extraordinary decisions, the everyday moments that make someone human.
Somewhere along the way, I began finding women whose lives were so remarkable that I couldn't quite believe how little space history had given them.
Women who composed music, challenged conventions, explored unfamiliar worlds, made discoveries, resisted oppression, wrote extraordinary books, and occasionally caused considerable trouble.
My favourite kind of women, really.
Some were celebrated in their own time but others were overlooked. Some have since found their way back into the history books, although not always into the stories we tell each other.
I wanted to know them better.
Not just what they achieved, but who they might have been. What frightened them. What delighted them. What they believed in. What they might have said if someone had simply sat down and listened.
So I started doing researching, and reading and writing.
Then, quite unexpectedly, I started imagining letters.
Not emails but actual real letters. The kind you open slowly, preferably with a cup of tea nearby and absolutely no intention of checking your phone.
Before I knew it, I had created an entire Ministry.
WELCOME TO THE MINISTRY OF LOST VOICES.
The Ministry is a little world I've built around a rather serious idea:
Remarkable women deserve to be remembered. And their stories deserve to be enjoyed.
Every month, I choose a real woman from history and create a beautifully crafted case file inspired by her life.
Inside, you'll discover her story through a personal letter, historical details, visual treasures, little surprises and access to our secret Listening Room, where the conversation continues.
Some of what you'll find is historical fact and some is carefully imagined.
The women are real. Their lives, achievements and historical circumstances are researched. The letters and conversations are my creative interpretations of what we know about them.
I believe there's room for both historical integrity and a little imagination.
Actually, I think they make rather wonderful companions.
WHY LETTERS?
Because I miss getting something lovely in the post.
Something that isn't a bill, an advertisement or a reminder that I have forgotten to pay for something.
I miss the anticipation. The pleasure of seeing an envelope with my name on it. The small ritual of opening it and I love the thought that somewhere, someone might be sitting at their kitchen table, reading a letter I've written and discovering a woman they never knew existed.
Perhaps they'll tell a friend about her.
Perhaps they'll look her up.
Perhaps they'll simply smile, fold the letter and keep it.
All three would make me very happy.
A NOTE FROM THE ARCHIVIST
The Ministry may be fictional, but everything behind it is very real.
I do the research. I write the stories. I dream up the little details. I put care into the things that arrive in your letterbox.
And I hope that, once a month, you'll find a moment to step away from the noise of everyday life and enter another woman's world.
You don't need to know anything about history.
You don't need to recognise the names.
You only need to be curious.
I'll find the women. You open the letters.
With love and a little historical mischief,
Valerie
Founder, storyteller & self-appointed Archivist
THE MINISTRY OF LOST VOICES
Recovering the voices history almost forgot.