Exploring the radical world of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth
On 8 November 2025 Pendle Radicals were honoured to be the co-hosts of this unique event, at Burnley’s Queen Street Mill Textile Museum, celebrating the radical world of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth.
This immersive spoken-word and song spectacular was the national launch event for the Rickard Sisters’ new graphic novel adaptation of Ethel’s radical story This Slavery, the event was created and produced by them and included contributions from the Commoners Choir (with a new song commissioned from Boff Whalley); the East Lancashire Clarion Choir; performers from Burnley Youth Theatre; Jennifer Reid and Jules Gibb. The Rickard Sisters also created the Ethelibition, a brand new exhibition about the life and work of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, made in collaboration with Pendle Radicals PhD candidate Jenny Harper and Dr Nicola Wilson from Reading University. It included a life-size recreation of the Martin’s family kitchen from This Slavery, so people could sit inside the book and feel what it was like to live and work in a 1910s mill town.
The Rickard Sisters discovered the novel from the Pendle Radicals podcast, commissioned in 2021 in partnership with the Lancashire Library Service and created by Jules Gibb and Liz & Scott Robertson. You read about, and listen to, all the episodes HERE.
Like us, the sisters fell in love with Ethel and her work. You can read more about this event on their website HERE. You can also buy a copy of the book from their website HERE.
You can get a flavour of the event from the two Rickard Sisters’ videos below.