As part of its Storytellers project, a new exhibition at Keswick Museum celebrates the 250^th anniversary of the birth of one of Keswick’s most famous characters – Poet Laureate and writer of the Three Bears tale Robert Southey.

Born in Bristol in 1774, he published his first collection of poems in 1795 and in 1813 became Poet Laureate, a post he held until his death.

Southey and his wife moved to Keswick in 1803 after the death of their first child. They lived at Greta Hall, which they initially shared with the family of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, their brother-in-law. They became familiar figures to local people and Southey’s fame brought visitors from across the world to the town.

Southey was a prolific and influential poet, essayist, historian, travel-writer and biographer. His poetry paved the way for writers such as Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and – later in the nineteenth century – Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson.

His biographies, including the best-selling The Life of Nelson contributed to the formation of the celebrity culture we recognise today. Southey was, throughout his career, frequently satirised and attacked for both his poetry and his politics.

Nicola Lawson, Curator at the museum, commented on Southey and the exhibition.

“A little-known fact about Poet Laureate Robert Southey is that he was the first person to publish the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears… although in fact there’s no Goldilocks in his version of the tale! Instead, it’s an old woman who meets the famous bears.

To celebrate Southey’s 250^th birthday, this exhibition will reveal the many different versions of this classic fairytale. From an old woman to a Ghanaian boy and everything in between, the exhibition will explore what stories we tell when we reimagine classic tales and hopefully inspire visitors to get creative themselves.”

The exhibition - ‘Reimagining Goldilocks: From Southey to Puss in Boots’ - opens at the museum on 29^th April.