Disabled Regency Era Artist Sarah Biffin

Vulgar History Podcast

Disabled Regency Era Artist Sarah Biffin 

March 4, 2026

Hello and welcome to Vulgar History, a feminist women’s history comedy podcast. My name is Ann Foster, and this is our Regency Era. This season, we’re talking about people who lived in the United Kingdom, mostly in England, in the early 1800s during what is known as the Regency era. I’ve been hoping that this season can really show an expansive view of all the sorts of different people who were living there at the time, not just the royal family, but just the everyday people, and also, to look at what society was like for all kinds of walks of life. 

That’s why I’m really happy today to be able to be talking to you about Sarah Biffin, who was an artist from this time period, one of the most successful women artists of Regency era England. She was also a woman living with disability. She had limb differences from a condition called phocomelia, and we’ll talk about what that means. And by we, I mean myself and the guest I have for the podcast today. 

I’m joined by the amazing Kristen Lopez, who’s a longtime friend of the podcast and friend of the me. She’s an author, she’s an entertainment journalist, and when we were trying to find ways that we could collaborate, she has a new book out called Popcorn Disabilities, which we talk about in this episode. She can explain to you more about what that book is about, but ultimately, she’s really interested in the history of people with disabilities, of disabled history, and so she is such a perfect guest to bring on to talk about this really cool, entrepreneurial woman, Sarah Biffin, who, I think it’s great that Sarah Biffin is becoming more widely known, and now that you’re all listening to this episode, you’ll know about her too. So, please enjoy my conversation with Kristen Lopez about Sarah Biffin.  

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Ann: Today, I’m joined by entertainment journalist and author, Kristen Lopez. Kristen, welcome to Vulgar History. 

Kristen: Thank you so much for wanting to chat with me! I feel very, very cool right now. I’ve been a long-time listener, first-time caller. 

Ann: Well, and I’ve been on your podcast before, so now it’s just I’m the one coming in with the facts and figures, and you’re the one coming in with the hot takes. 

Kristen: I mean, I try, I try. 

Ann: Yeah, so we should say that you’re the host of Ticklish Business, the podcast about, well, you talk about movies, but it’s all, like, classic, old movies, right? 

Kristen: Yeah, pre-1975-ish. 

Ann: And so, I do want to quickly say, in terms of why you’re on this particular episode with me today, we’re talking about a disabled person from the Regency era history, and your most recent book is Popcorn Disabilities and explain what that is about. 

Kristen: Yeah, it’s a book about the history of disabled representation in the movies told by a disabled person who grew up on a lot of movies, ultimately examining how movies set a standard for what disability is, and how that affects a generation of disabled people who grow up on these movies, as well as abled audiences who get, unfortunately, a very skewed picture that leads to a lot of awkward encounters with actual disabled people in their lives. So, it’s both history, social analysis, a lot of snark, while looking at some of the most beloved films to ever star a lot of able-bodied people playing disabled. 

Ann: Well, and this is where we were talking with each other, and we were like, how can I have you on my show so you can talk about your book? And you’re like, “Well, I don’t know if there’s like a disabled person from the Regency era.” I was like, “Kristen, guess what? There is.’ 

Kristen: [laughs] Which I kind of should have realized because, not to jump ahead, but this is kind of like peak disabled times, the Regency, the 1800s. Dickens publishes Christmas Carol in 1846, which creates pretty much the prototype for every disabled character known to man. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised that there was somebody, but history is written by the abled. I did not know. 

Ann: Well, and Sarah Biffin is somebody who I’ll mention— We’re going to tell the biography, everybody. Just sit tight. If you’re new to Vulgar History, we have tangents. But Sarah Biffin was an artist at this time, and the first large-scale exhibition in modern time of her work was in 2022, and she’s been getting more and more attention. Actually, I think I have it in my notes here. So, one of her pieces went up for auction at Sotheby’s, in, I want to say 2019. Yeah, it was one of her self-portraits that she painted in 1821, and it was sold at auction. And when they went to sell the auction, like it had been sold at auction in 1986 from somebody to somebody, and it went for, like, $2,000. And so, they’re like, “Well, that was a while ago. It’s a miniature.” That was what she painted, were small paintings, and they’re like, “Well, these other miniature artists from this time, their pieces would sell for like, $500, $1,000, and this went for £137,500 pounds.” 

Kristen: Wow! 

Ann: Which is the most that, like, any work of this type from that era has ever gone for. And that speaks to the fact that her name is becoming more famous, and the fact that it’s a self-portrait is even more special because it’s just, like, “Who painted this? Oh, her!” So, she’s becoming better known now. Yeah. 

Kristen: When people say there’s no money in disability, I’m going to start pointing to that and be all “Actually, there is.” 

Ann: We’re going to talk about how she made a career. I don’t want to jump ahead, but it’s interesting that you’re here, like, as a film reviewer, as a film journalist, because my instinctive first thought whenever I read an interesting story about any woman from history, I’m like, “Why isn’t there a movie about this?” And then I was thinking about your book, and I’m like, “I’m glad there’s not a movie about this,” because it probably would have been made in 1992, starring Helena Bonham Carter [Kristen laughs] with like, you know, green screens on her arms and legs. 

Kristen: That is actually a perfect casting right there. Yeah, you would have definitely gotten, like, either Juliette Binoche, probably might have done this or Ormond, you know, Julia Ormond, either one of the brunette, foreign women of that time. But I don’t think they would have CG-ed because the early ‘90s, you know, CG was still in its infancy. So, odds are they would have pulled, you know, the John Hurt thing from Elephant Man, and they would have conjured up some sort of contraption or something, to hide her limbs and been like, [intense, dramatic tone] “She suffered for her art!” and then she would have walked away with an Oscar. 

So, you know, it was not impossible. But as we’ve seen historically, film does not really like to do stories about disabled women, mostly because, you know, the perception is, is that they’re not fuckable. 

Ann: Well, and when they do, you make this clarification in your book, but between sort of like what Sarah Biffin has, which is limb differences, like, she’s got an obvious physical, visual… And the sorts of disabilities that show up in film are often this person is deaf, or it’s something where it’s like, an able-bodied actor can portray that without having to change their physical…

Kristen: Yeah, the actress, we don’t want to mess with this, you don’t want to mess with the face. And so usually, you’ll get a lot of blind, deaf or nonverbal, or a combination of the two. If you get a wheelchair, they have all their limbs, and it’s just some woman sitting in a chair. 

In this case, I definitely think even though Sarah Biffin had, you know, nothing affecting her face, I still think people would have been like, “Yeah. No. There’s just too much disability there. And I think all of the text at the time that Sarah Biffin lived, emphasizing that she was heavy set, I think they’d have been like, “Yeah, we can’t get a size zero woman in the part.” So, I think they would probably had to add on a fat suit. It would have just been a nightmare, but I’m kind of shocked nobody like Merchant Ivory or something entertained it for about five minutes. 

Ann: Or even, what I could see could have happened, but hasn’t, would be in a Merchant Ivory film or something set in this kind of setting, or even a Charles Dickens, it’s like, you just get perhaps a person who has this condition now in the background of a scene, doing some painting where you’re like, “Oh my god, that’s Sarah Biffin,” almost like an extra. Like, I can see that you have that cameo. 

Kristen: In movies usually directed by, like, more oddball directors like David Lynch, I think of something like Quills, you know, where you get maybe a crowd sequence of, like, the fair and they show all of the “freaks,” and you probably would have seen Sarah Biffin. Or they would have highly sexualized her, and like, she would just have her top off for no reason or something. [Ann laughs] I don’t know. I could definitely see that, too. 

Ann: Oh my god. If they’re like, “She has no arms and no legs, but she has boobs. This can work.” 

Kristen: Exactly. She’s got a rockin’ rack, it’s fine. 

Ann: We’re good.

Kristen: Again, kind of shocked people haven’t done this yet. 

Ann: Yeah. Anyway, it was just funny to me that my thought sequence was like, “Oh, there should be a movie,” and then I was like, “No!” [laughs]

Kristen: Exactly. The pros and cons of making movies with disabled women in this day; it hasn’t changed much, which is frustrating. 

Ann: I think that perhaps, in the wake of, like, this Sotheby’s auction, 2019. 2022, there was this exhibition. She’s becoming better known, I feel like I know for a fact, I’m sure there’s people out there, actors who have the same physical situation who would kill this role if somebody could figure the financing. 

Kristen: Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s frustrating because we are still getting movies about disabled women that are mostly able to pass for able bodied in many ways. I mean, we’re getting we’re getting a Judy Heumann biopic at some point this year. You know, having met Judy Heumann in person, she could not pass for able, but I don’t really believe Hollywood’s going to do much with that. But, you know, we’re still so outdated in the landscape that I would love to see it. But I think that it requires so many other people having their thought process in the right place. I’m sure there’s actors with, you know, limb difference that, you know, maybe they don’t have, you know, arms, but they have legs. You have to CGI something. But I so often see CGI used to create, you know, a shrunken Hugh Grant in Wonka or something, that I’m just kind of like, I’m pretty sure you could find a disabled actress that fits a couple of the criteria, and then you CGI for the rest, because you do it for all these other asinine things that we don’t need. 

Ann: No, exactly. 

So, Sarah Biffin. What a story. I think as we go through, we can imagine the good version and/or the bad version of how would they have made this into a movie, because part of the story actually is sort of like an anti-trigger warning. Like, she thrives. This is not a story of a disabled person and like, oh, all these horrible things. It’s like, she kicks ass and does well for herself. She certainly has challenges, but… So, I feel like, first of all, for a movie, we need to put some more challenges in the way.

Kristen: It’s not inspiration porn. 

Ann: [laughs] She’s doing too well. She’s too capable. Yeah. So, I think that they’d want to change that as well. So, I’m going to begin this with, later in her life, she wrote sort of a personal, like an artist’s statement, explaining who she is and her life story. So, as much as possible, I’d like to use some of her words. Although I will say she wrote this artist statement hoping to get some more patrons to finance her art career, so she’s being as persuasive as she can. But who is ever objective when writing a biography? But she starts it off with “I was born on the 25th of October, 1784 at East Quantoxhead near Bridgwater in Somersetshire without hands or arms.” 

Kristen: I mean, that’s getting right to the point of it. 

Ann: Yeah. Exactly, it’s just like, jump right to the start. Actually, I will say, too, the main resource that I used for researching this was a book. Actually, it’s the book from the exhibition from 2002. It’s called Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin, and it’s by Philip Mould & Company. And then, there’s also an article I read by Essaka Joshua from ArtUK.org, and an article by Jane Audas on the ArtSociety.org, and there’s info on Wikipedia as well. But it seems like it’s a fast-moving target. Sarah Biffin, by 2022, some of the stuff I read in here, I’m like, “Oh, well, that’s different from what the article was.” I read, and I’m like, “Oh. The article is from 2019.” People are doing this research, and we’re learning more, which is great, which is great, which is good to see. It clarified some things for me. I’m just really happy that this exhibition happened, and they wrote a book. Thank you so much. 

So, she was the middle child of five. The other siblings, as far as we know, no limb differences. She was born to, in the context of British society, working-class, by which I mean a farm labourer living on a cottage on land that, like, he runs to own. So, they’re not well off, certainly. And I think there’s something about on the baptismal certificate, it’s just like, “Oh, and this person was born to her and him. No arms or legs.” Like, people are… 

Kristen: [laughs] You’ve got to emphasize that every turn. 

Ann: It was a notable thing to happen in this part of the world. 

Kristen: I’m kind of surprised they didn’t take out an ad, you know, like maybe Weekly World News type of thing or just, you know, skywrite, if that had been a thing at the time. It’s interesting where it pops up, where they’re like, “We have to contextualize this. She doesn’t have limbs.” 

Ann: Yeah, “Just to be clear.” And it’s interesting because one of the people who worked on this exhibition is a person with the same limb difference, and because she’s not in the Regency era, we see a photo of her, and you can see she’s wearing, like, a short skirt, like, “Oh. She has feet.” So, I presume Sarah Biffin had a similar situation, like, no hands, no arms, no legs, but feet is what she had going on. This is where it’s like, on the one hand, the tragic, let’s make this story melodramatic, it’s like “The family were struggling, and they didn’t know what to do, and they wanted to put up for adoption.” But the actual story that happened is the family was cool with it and chill with it, and they’re like, “Okay. Let’s just figure out how we can make this work.” 

Kristen: Ann, why would a family be cool with no arms and no legs? That is just shenanigans, you know? [laughs] 

Ann: Who can imagine that a family could love their child no matter what? 

Kristen: I mean, you know, according to some people, I should thank the good Lord every day that my parents weren’t like, “Wheelchair. What? We can’t handle this. This is just a bridge too far.” But I think that that says so much that right away, you know, the gratitude element that so often is given to disabled people, which is like, your family could have cast you out and put you up for adoption in Regency times, you know? You could be living in squalor, but you weren’t. Even though that is not historically true, the societal belief, it starts early that, you know, disabled people should be grateful for something as simple as your parents kept you. 

Ann: Yeah. And I think this is part of why I really wanted to include this episode in this Regency Era series that I’m doing, because like I’ve been trying to talk about, you know, like people of colour, queer people in the Regency era. It’s like, they were all there! People have always been people. And it’s like, there’s always been disabled people, and you just don’t hear about them a lot, the same way you don’t hear about a lot of disabled people now. But like, Sarah Biffin became remarkable, and I think how many other people with a situation, in a poor household with five children, where it’s just like, what you want your children to do in general, if you’re a farm labourer in Regency era, I think, is help you till the fields. You want them to do some shit, and then maybe marry your daughters off, make a bit of money. She was not going to be able to do that. 

But she did a lot. She, like, figured out, not entirely on her own, but with the help of her family, she figured out how to do everything that she needed to do. She was sewing clothes as a child. Like, she figured out, just get… Her whole strategy for painting that she does later is, I think, similar to what she did for writing, and then also for sewing, which is kind of like, between her shoulder and her cheek, she would kind of put her tool and then she would just get it done. So, she was like, helping out around the house. Again, I hope I don’t sound like, “Oh my god, what?! A disabled person contributing to society?” But I feel like when you think about it, especially old in time, you think about a Tiny Tim where it’s just like, “Oh, no, this poor little child,” and it’s just a burden upon the family. But she was just, like, there with her family getting shit done, and lots of other people were like that then too, I’m sure. 

Kristen: I was definitely interested in the logistics because I can tell you, I mean, I have, you know, all my limbs, and I’m not clear on how I would be able to, like… I’ve got like, a bad shoulder, you know? So, you’re just kind of trying to figure out how reliant somebody is on uncertain things. And, you know, somebody like me that utilizes a wheelchair and has to push, you know, your shoulder does a lot of work. And so, for me, I’d be like, how does that work? If you pull a muscle in your shoulder – there are a lot of them, I’ve pulled several of them – you know, how does she navigate that? So, for me, I’m fascinated by the logistical nature of how that works out. There’s a way to do that respectfully. 

And I think that what’s fascinating is that one of the articles, you know, they talk about how writers were fascinated by this whole topic. They would often talk about how she did average things, and a lot of her performing in the carnival circuit was her just doing average things. We see that manifesting in film, too. You know, you look at something like Tod Browning’s Freaks from 1932, you know, and a lot of those sequences are just watching these carnival folk engage in the day-to-day; having lunch. How does the woman— There is a woman with feet, but no arms, and, you know, you watch her lift her leg with a fork and eat food, you know? It’s presented just very blandly; this is just how they move about the space. The film presents these things is just kind of like, average people things, it’s not meant to be spectacle. But as we know, in the 1800s, you know, a lot of the carnival, festival landscape, these exhibitions were often about spectacle. So, it’s interesting to see those two dynamics and how subtle those shifts are to make something either inspirational or actually really mundane. 

Ann: Yeah. We’re going to get into her carnival era as well. And in this book, this excellent book, thank god it exists, and I read it today. It talks about some other people with similar limb differences and what they were doing at carnivals. There was one guy, similar to in the movie you’re saying, I forget his name, but he was from around the same era, and he had no arms, but he did have legs and feet. And people just pay money to watch him drink a cup of tea. 

Kristen: I joke all the time about doing OnlyFans. But I’m like, “If the money ever changes…” And I had a friend tell me that there is this whole fetish community of people willing to pay to watch disabled people just do stuff. He was like, “They want to watch you vacuum your apartment,” you know? And I was like, “I mean, look. If the money ever dries up in the writing game, I will definitely create a landscape where somebody just wants to watch me like eat food, and they’re going to give me money to do that? That’s fine.” 

Ann: No, and that’s why I feel like – again, we’re going to get back to her biography – but, like, the carnival era really fascinates me. And I honestly did think of OnlyFans. I’m like, people are just so interested in watching people with different sorts of bodies just do anything. And I’m like, now, on the one hand, it’s like, humiliating and humans as entertainment. But on the other hand, it’s like, if you’re going to like pay me to watch me vacuum, like… Sure! [laughs] I was going to vacuum anyway! 

Kristen: I was just telling somebody today: Disabled people should be in charge of their own exploitation. Like, if we’re going to be exploited, then I should be the one profiting and doing it. And there’s a great article that I was reading when I was writing Popcorn Disabilities, and it’s called “Tiny Tim, Blind Bertha, and the Resistance of Miss Mowcher, Charles Dickens and the Uses of Disability” by Julia Miele Rodas. It sets out this really interesting premise about the carnival circuit, and how that was a means of making money for disabled people who, for various reasons, maybe couldn’t work in factories or any of the other jobs. She was talking about how the disabled were often placed and sold concurrently with Indigenous people and colonized people, and how often the two were really just kind of interrelated. So, you know, the whole concept of the strange and exotic person of the Orient is also the strange and exotic person that doesn’t have any arms or legs, you know? So, the two really did go hand in hand. 

And then you think of like, you know, John Merrick, “The Elephant Man,” you know? This idea that there’s always this kind of concept that there’s always an able person on the side; the bad owner of the disabled person who’s, like, keeping the coin for himself. But a lot of times they said, like, disabled people were just kind of like, “I can’t get a job down the street. The factory is like, ‘You don’t have arms, you can’t make thimbles,” or whatever, “I might as well do this.” And they said that a lot of opportunities for disabled people, they got to travel the world, they were fed, they were treated like royalty. And whether that’s right or wrong, like, those are the options they were given, and in a lot of instances, I’m like, “Hey, you’re making money, and you’re travelling, and you’re doing all these things? I would love to do that.” 

Ann: Yeah, it’s kind of like, within the pantheon and the context of this Regency era that I’ve been talking about on the season, it’s kind of like everybody is just kind of like, “I need an income. What is that going to look like?” And people are just doing, like, literally whatever you can, especially people like Sarah Biffin, who is from this farmhand family. 

So, what she did, this is more from her self-written artist statement, she was talking about how she decided to teach herself how to sew, which also is interesting. It’s like, she wanted to make her own outfits, which is, I think, as somebody who’s shaped very differently from your siblings, hand-me-downs are not going to work out for her. So, I respect that she was just like, “I want my own things.” But it also shows that she’s a creative and an artistic person. 

So, she was living with her family, and then when she’s… So, the original research seemed to suggest that she was 13 when she went off to join the carnival circuit, but she was actually probably more like 20. What she decided was she was like, “I want to learn how to paint. This is a creative outlet that I would like to get into. I like to learn more about it.” We don’t know; there are so many tantalizing mysteries of various people. It’s like, how did she meet this person? We don’t know. But she meets this guy who is listed in various censuses as an artist called Emmanuel Dukes. Sometimes people are like, “Oh, he’s a showman. He’s sort of like a…” What’s The Greatest Showman guy? 

Kristen: Oh, P.T. Barnum. 

Ann: People imagine he’s like a P.T. Barnum-type, but he seems to be somewhere not quite there. He does seem to be an artist mostly, so he kind of teaches her and introduces her to how to do art. He’s the one who is like, “I think that you could make money practicing art, and people come watch you do it,” because what we were just talking about, that would be fascinating to people. So, this is a way that you can maybe finance what you want to be doing and get your name out there and become a bit better known, because the sort of art that she decides to do is miniatures painting. 

So, these are just little tiny, little tiny paintings. And it was in a pre-photography era. This is a way that if you’re like, “This is my person who I love. This is my child. This is my dog,” and you have a little picture to take around with you, you hire, you commission an artist to draw a little, tiny version of that person. Or like, they see a big painting and turn it into a tiny version. And miniature painting. I’ve talked about some other women artists, it was more like, French Revolution era, but that’s not so long ago from her, and this is a sort of art that women often did because it took up a lot less space in the home, and it was a lot less expensive than doing, like, giant canvases and huge tubes of paint. Women would do pastels, or they would do miniatures, because it’s kind of like an art that you can do in the corner of your house while you’re raising your children or whatever. 

So, she’s like, “I want to do this art form that is, I already know, acceptable for a woman to be doing.” And then this mentor, her art teacher, is like, “Okay. Well, let’s just put you on the festival carnival circuit.” This is where she signed some sort of contract with him that lasts for the next 15 years, and while she was under the contract, she would always only say like, “Oh, this is so great. He’s helping me out so much.” And she lived with him and his family; she travelled with them, and she would live with them when they weren’t travelling. And she said, “They took such good care of me.” And then once she was done the contract, she was just kind of like, “It wasn’t the best.” But while she’s under contract, she can’t say anything against him. 

Kristen: Yeah. And I mean, I think that’s definitely something. The level of control that able people have had historically, again, this is no different than somebody like John Merrick, you know, “The Elephant Man,” and his relationship with Frederick Treves, the doctor. You know, a lot of the transition from the 1800s to the 1900s often saw disabled people transition from being owned or controlled in some way by carnival people to being owned and controlled by either hospitals, institutions, or doctors. 

So, when the medical community takes an interest in disability and spectacle is taken off the streets and into the medical settings, these kind of medical sideshows, which were essentially attempts to show medical issues with people and educate the public. When the entertainment portion pivots to an edgy edutainment, you know, the control changes. If anything, doctors ended up having even more control because they were experts, right? They were the ones that were going to be able to tell people whether these people could live. So, it becomes a far more dangerous and confining setting, and the rise of institutionalizing disabled people expands. So, you know, it’s definitely good that she was able to get out of it because in a couple of years, a lot of people were just not able to do that once medicine and science becomes the end goal. 

Ann: Well, and that’s also just making me think about… So, in my book, Rebel of the Regency, available now, I did some research in that because the main person I talk about in that, Caroline of Brunswick, has various medical chronic concerns, and her husband does, too. And so, I was reading about kind of what the treatments were. I was talking with my friend, who actually is a professor in history of science. And I was just like, “Explain to me what was going on with medicine circa 1820.” And we’re in like, a leeches er, we’re in like a… There’s the four humors, blood letting is the cure for everything, no germ theory, no one knows about washing hands. 

So, that’s where Sarah Biffin is beginning her life and her journey. But towards the end of her life, like mid-1800s, is where suddenly it’s like science! Medicine! Doctors! Hospitals! So, I can see that’s where the pivot happened once medicine kind of took over. 

Kristen: Yeah. I mean, Merrick gets the name “The Elephant Man” because Frederick Treves jokingly is like, well, his mother saw an elephant when she was pregnant, and it scared her into all of that. And, you know, people assume that eugenics plays such a big part in the Victorian transition with disability. I mean, eugenics is always part of it, but at the same time, you know, Sarah Biffin is really at this beginning of the 1840s, Dickensian revolution of disability that people do not talk about enough, about how Charles Dickens fucked things up for every disabled person from time immemorial. We’re going to get there. But yeah, I mean, I think there’s a real revolution brewing. 

Ann: Yeah. Charles Dickens is, like, stealthily the villain of this story, and we’ll tell you why.

Kristen: He is the Moriarty, the Dr. No, he’s the everything. 

Ann: Wait. And so, this could be in the movie. We could have her and Charles Dickens, like some sort of nemesis-like concept. I think that could be an angle. 

Kristen: Yes! Yes! You get Jeremy Irons to play Charles Dickens or something. 

Ann: You bring in Colin Firth or somebody just in his… 

Kristen: Yeah, I support this too. Yes. 

Ann: So, I think this is how we’re going to get this off the ground. You have to have some sort of famous man be in this movie. 

Kristen: Right. Well, you’re going to have to add a love interest or a du— You need to dude, an able dude, that’s going to save her. So, we’re going to have to create a guy that is like, “I support her, and I’m not smothering, but she’s also being exploited.” So, we’re going to have to completely craft another character. 

Ann: We absolutely are, because that’s the thing. Listeners, she figures this shit out herself, by herself, basically. To make a movie, you’d have to have someone saving her. But in fact, she saved herself. 

So, the sorts of fairs that she’s exhibiting in… This is sort of, I was trying to think how to compare it to, because when I think of a fair, here in the town where I live, it’s kind of like, here’s like, you know, the fairground rides, and here’s the games you can play, and then, you know, some washed up country music star is going to do a concert, and hot dogs. But the fairs we’re talking about, the closest thing I can think is almost like a Disney situation, where there’s kind of competing, except it’s all different independent contractors. It’s like competing tents, and you have to pay to get into each tent, and each tent offers, claims, “It’s going to be like the most mind-blowing experience you’ve ever seen.” One of them is maybe a mind reader, and one of them is like a trapeze artist, or whatever. And Sarah Biffin is one of these. But you have to pay to go in to see her. So, they have to explain, like, “Here’s what you’re going to see. You’re going to go in this tent and going to watch a woman drinking a cup of tea.” 

Kristen: “You’re going to watch a disabled woman drink coffee.” 

Ann: “She has no hands!” 

Kristen: Nice work, if you can get it. I would love to just hang out in a tent all day at a farmer’s market or something, and eat cheesecake and have people pay to see me do it.

Ann: Yeah. So, what she’s doing is like, this is her art career. Because she’s with this guy, David Dukes or Emmanuel. Emmanuel Dukes is who she’s with, and he is, like, teaching her various art techniques and stuff, and so she’s practicing her painting. So, people pay to go into this tent, and what you’re going to see is this 20-year-old woman; she’s going to write with a pen, she’s going to cut out fabric and sew clothes with a needle, she’s going to do some painting. So, she’s just, like, doing what her hobbies are anyway, and people are paying to go in. And then, you would also get, when you went in, she would write your name on a piece of paper and give it to you, so that was your like, “Oh my god! I have this piece of paper, and it was written by a woman with no hands!” [Kristen giggles] Like, this was your souvenir. But she became a very popular attraction. 

It’s interesting to me that as she was doing this, she was also exhibiting her show. So, this is something that the people who put together this current-day exhibition, they sort of tracked. Simultaneously, she’s going from town to town doing these fairs, but then she would also find a place to rent in the town and be like, “Hey, here’s my exhibition of my art.” So, she’s like… She’s hustling. 

Kristen: She’s a millennial freelancer before it was a thing. 

Ann: Absolutely, because she’s just got this entrepreneurial spirit. She’s not just being somewhat used by this able-bodied man; she’s also figuring out her own career and making her own contacts. She’s getting to know, like, the various fairs they go to, she criss-crosses all around the United Kingdom. She goes to all these cities, and she meets people, and she’s memorable because of what she looks like and because of her talent. So, later, when she leaves the carnival, she has these connections, so she’s able to keep exhibiting her work. She’s putting all the pieces in place to be able to leave the carnival and thrive on her own. 

I think that’s a really interesting part of her story, that she’s figured this out for herself. She’s like, “Here’s the opportunities and here’s what I’m going to do.” And she’s apparently so… Through everyone who’s writing about her, who wrote in their memoirs, who remember seeing her, she’s so personable and charming and lovely, which you have to be, as you would know, Kristen, as a freelancer, when you go to one of these events, you want to be memorable, but you also want to be someone that someone, like when they have a job in mind, they’re like, “Oh, I’ll call that nice person I met.” So, she’s winning people over; she’s so lovely. 

Kristen: It’s definitely… You know, we don’t talk about this enough, but disability can be a nice advantage if you know how to use it right. I mean, I’ve definitely had encounters with, like, celebrities don’t remember anybody, and as a journalist, you know, it’s always nice to have people be like, “I remember you.” I’m like, “Yeah, because I’m the only disabled person that’s ever talked to you. You may not remember my name, but you remember the wheelchair.” So, it’s a good advantage, but you have to have the talent, of course, to back everything up. And the fact that she was able to showcase that she had artistic ability, somebody may not remember her name, but if they’re looking for an artist, they’re like, “Hey! I remember that art from that artist. Get the chick with no hands!” So, again, all just works nicely together if you know how to work it. 

Ann: Well, and this is what’s interesting to me about the branding that she does. Like, there are some pictures of the pamphlets and the playbills just saying, like, “Come and see Miss Biffin, she’s going to be at the fair,” because can you imagine going to the fair, all these independent contractors are all showing up, and they all have a flyer. It’s just like the Fringe Festival sort of atmosphere was just like, “See this show! No, see this show!” And her thing is just like, “Come see Miss Biffin,” her name becomes… Miss Biffin is huge, and then there’s, like, a whole paragraph in the middle, it’s “She doesn’t have any hands.” But it’s not like “Miss Biffin, the painter with no hands!” It’s she herself.

Kristen: It’s not saying, “She has no hands,” and then, in her tiny, tiny type, it’s got her name. It’s not like that. 

Ann: Her name is what becomes famous, and I find that really interesting. 

Kristen: Yeah, that needs to happen far more often, more often than it usually does. Because I mean, even now, you know, I tell people all the time, like, “Am I a disabled journalist? Yes.” But at the same time, I think it’s always heartening to have people that are like, they know my name first before they realize. And there are people that interact with me that do not know that I’m disabled. You know, like I’m like, “How do you not Google me and see the first picture, you know, as me as a wheelchair user?” So, that’s really important, again, to create when creating a brand. She was, again, cutting-edge. 

Ann: And it’s just, like, she’s this 20-year-old woman from a farm in Somerset, like, no one’s coming— She’s got this guy who’s helping her to get into the fair and stuff, but like, there’s no one there to be mentoring her in PR, her instincts are just so correct. But also her artistic ability. He’s giving her these lessons, and you could give me those lessons; I would not be creating things like she was creating in 1821. 

Kristen: No, I took it. I took a rogue art class as a kid, okay? I mean, my parents and my grandparents thought I was a great painter, but I was not. 

Ann: So, she’s travelling around. She’s travelling around doing these fairs/building her portfolio, you know, doing these other exhibitions and other places. And while she’s in Edinburgh, of all places, there’s this guy, George Douglas, the 6th Earl of Morton. And I want to pause. For long-time listeners of my podcast who listen to the Mary, Queen of Scots series: Yes, he is the descendant of the Earl of Morton from the Mary, Queen of Scots series. There’s a line of people who are all called George Douglas, and he is one of the Douglas family from the Mary, Queen of Scots story. 

Anyway, his whole thing, his vibe. So, this is like, 1808, they meet each other. Presumably, like we’re guessing, how do they meet each other, but George Douglas was a real patron of the arts. He was really interested in this, and he’s also in a pre-Charles Dickens era, interested in what I’m going to call, vaguely, social justice. He wants to support people who are on the margins of society. And that’s a good instinct, I don’t want to say it’s not, but he wants to be seen as someone who is doing that. So, he wants to do this, but in a performative way. 

Kristen: He’s definitely, like, a white-abled saviour in some way. 

Ann: Yes. He hears, presumably, one of these flyers comes his way because she’s in town, and so he goes to her exhibition, and he’s like, “Wait, but are you really?” And you know what? Fair enough, because I’m sure there’s people at the fair who are pretending to be doing whatever they’re doing. So, he’s like, “Are you actually painting?” He’s like, “I want you to paint a portrait of me. But every day at the end of the day, I’m going to take home the work in progress and bring it back so that there’s no shenanigans.” There’s not, like, someone secretly, overnight, finishing it. 

Kristen: I would have looked at him like, “Dude, where do you think— Really? You have to be that guy? Like, the magician being like, I have to make sure there’s no hanky panky.” He thinks that he’s watching The Unknown with Lon Chaney, and he’s just going to actually have arms hiding somewhere. 

Ann: [laughs] Exactly! They just pop out at night. 

Kristen: Yeah. You know, my hidden arms, or I have my hidden guy with arms that just paints my stuff for me. Like, wow. 

Ann: I know, it’s like, dude, like you paid to come in the tent. You’re watching her paint your portrait. Like, what? Where do you think the shenanigans is going to occur? Anyway, he was a suspicious guy, but she was actually doing the painting, obviously. And so, she did it, and he was like, “Oh my God, this is incredible.” 

This is what’s interesting about her story. Like, partially, his interest was piqued because of her limb difference, and I will say miniature painting was a very competitive field at this time. So, like you’re saying, it’s just like, if you’re like “I need someone to do my miniature. Who’s the one with the no hands?” Like, she has to stand out in a field. She knows to use that to her advantage, that she is memorable, that she is different. But her miniatures are really, really good. Like, she’s an exceptionally good painter, and he chose her because of this limb difference. But then, once he sees how good her art is, he’s like, “I’m going to help you out.” 

Kristen: Isn’t it funny when that happens? “I only hired you because you were disabled. But then I found out that you actually have talent!” 

Ann: [laughs] Can both things be true? 

Kristen: Yeah. Who knew? 

Ann: But he’s just blown away. It’s such a modern-feeling thing, where it’s like, there’s so many people right now who are, you know, talented writers, talented whatever. But like, once you can hang on to it, it’s like “She’s a talented writer. And also, she’s a single mom of all these kids.” Like, like, “Oh, well, now we’ll write about her in People magazine.” You know? 

Kristen: Yeah. I mean, I think that’s the thing, is that we love this concept of, like, struggle porn, you know? Like the poverty porn thing. We see it with disability all the time; we love the story of disability being something to overcome, to persevere, to transcend. And, you know, I mean, even in the Art UK piece, it starts off that her story is one of perseverance and resilience. That’s all disabled stories, and that’s the unfortunate thing, you know? It often makes people believe that disability is often something that is a story of trauma and sadness and gloom, that must be, at the end of the day, this person is still smiling after all the things they’ve endured. 

I’ve encountered people in life that have been like, “You’re so inspirational because you go out to movies and you do this job when you’re living in a wheelchair and it’s so painful all day long.” I’m like, what are you talking about? Because I don’t think that my life is as painful and sad as anybody else’s. It’s just I use a different conveyance to get from A to B than you are, you know? And I’m like, and if you’re so concerned about how I navigate the world, maybe advocate for making the world more inclusive to people with disabilities, because it’s not just me. But that’s such a stigma that perseveres to this day, this idea that disability is often the story of interesting folk that are coming up against the odds. 

Ann: Yeah, and every day, leaving the house is a brave decision where it’s not just like, “Bitch, no, I just needed groceries!” 

Kristen: I literally had a neighbour who I had never met before in my life come out of her house one day while I was walking my dog and come up to me and say, “Every day I see you with your dog, I think, if you can do it, I can do it. And there’s nothing nearly as bad in my life when I see you.” And I was just like, a person I had never met before, I was like, [hesitant tone] “Thank you? I would like this conversation to end.” And that’s exactly what it is. 

Ann: Yeah, that’s… horrifying. And I’m sure that that’s happening to Sarah Biffin a lot, but no one was writing about it, so we don’t know about it, but I’m sure it was.

Kristen: I think what’s interesting is, is according to the Art UK, people were writing about her, you know, and usually it was often about her appearance, how she looked. I think that’s another thing, too, that unfortunately we have not learned from, is that with women, especially disabled women, aesthetics play into everything. You know, if she was a physically appealing person, they would probably be writing about, “Oh, isn’t it so tragic?” She’s the Nessa Rose of, you know, the 1800s. “She’s so tragically beautiful.” And unfortunately, because she was kind of a heavyset woman, because there’s not a lot of room on her person for where stuff is, fat’s going to settle where it settles. You know, they’re just like, “She’s so heavy.” And I’m just kind of like, “Wow, she’s disabled, and you’re fat-shaming her. Great.” 

Ann: This is where it’s, like, this story contains multitudes, and I’m so glad you’re here to kind of unpack it all with me because, like, she got in the door because— I was going to say her foot in the door, and then I’m like, “No, she doesn’t have feet,” and then I’m like, “No, she does have feet!” So, this Earl of Morton saw her painting, realized that she actually was doing it, and he’s like, “Oh, fuck, this is like really good, actually,” and also, it’ll make him look good to be sponsoring this disabled person.

Kristen: For less than the price of a cup of coffee, you can sponsor a woman with no arms, no legs, but feet. 

Ann: And honestly, if like, the Earl of anything wants to sponsor Kristen or myself, I would also accept that. 

Kristen: I’m here. I also have feet, so, you know. I can’t paint, but I can write. So, you know, there you go. 

Ann: But he just becomes her absolute champion. So, he’s impressed by her talent, and also, I think knowing how good this is going to make him look to be supporting her. He showed this portrait to— I should mention he has a job, and his job is in the household of the Queen of Great Britain, who is Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton. So, he goes to her and to her husband, George III, who at this point is not like he is at the end of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, he’s like, coherent and with it, at this point.

Kristen: He hadn’t earned “the Mad King” moniker that is usually associated. 

Ann: He was a king doing his king shit. And so, this guy, Morton, takes this to King George III and is just like, “Oh, my God. Look at this amazing miniature and guess what? Guess how the woman paints it? Not with her hands!” [laughs]

Kristen: I love that everybody is prefacing these stories with like, “Do you like that painting? Well, guess what? The chick who did it didn’t have hands. How do you feel now?” 

Ann: No, and this is where, in a lot of her artwork from most of her career, she signs it, like, “By Miss Biffin, without hands.” [Kristen laughs] At the bottom of all her paintings, it says “without hands.” Like, she’s just like, “Remember me, without hands.” 

Kristen: She would be a hell of a YouTuber or Instagram influencer. She knows what the gimmick is, and she runs with it. 

Ann: She’s got big YouTuber energy, yes. Because she’s just, like, self-promoting to the most amazing extent, and it’s gotten her this far. And then, the king is just like, “Oh, this is great.” So, the king doesn’t sponsor her or anything, but I think the royal family becomes aware of her because, as time goes on, she gets commissions to paint miniatures for some of them, which I’ll talk about. 

So, the Earl of Morton sponsors her tuition to go to the Royal Academy of Arts, which, like, not only is it rare for a disabled person to be there, but for a woman to be there at all is very rare. But I think because she’s got the patronage of this very influential person because the king was like, “Oh wow, that’s great.” So, she’s getting like, formal art education now, not just this random guy who took her to fairs, but she’s learning actual stuff. So, she studied under William Marshall Craig, an expert in miniature portraits. And in the art exhibition of her show, there’s all these… I’ll hold it up now for those watching the video feed. The cover of the book, it’s feathers. So many of her art from this time, she was told, they’re like “Paint feathers and flowers because you get so much nuance and detail and you can capture the weight of things and that will help you with your miniatures.” So, there’s so many studies by her of feathers. I think this is also an era where people were wearing a lot of feathers on their hats and things, so I think it’d be pretty easy for her to find feathers to paint. 

So, she’s just getting this amazing training/also dragged around. I don’t know if she’s being dragged around, but she is going around on the festival circuit as well as doing her shows and training. So, this is where you’re saying she’s, like, the millennial multitasker. It’s just like, “Yeah, I’m getting my art degree while also working this 9:00 to 5:00, while also, in the evenings, painting…” because she’s doing commissions for people. This is what she’s up to until 1821. So, ultimately, she’s on the festival circuit for about 15 years. At one point, the Earl of Morton tries to get her out of her contract with this guy, Emmanuel Dukes, but he is not able to. Whatever this 15-year contract to like be in festivals was, it was very strong. But also, she had some loyalty to him, is probably part of it, because he was the one who kind of got her out of the farmhouse and into the world. But I will say, like, once the contract ends, she’s just like, “See ya never,” and heads off. 

So, she’s had 15 years to, not just hone her craft and become better at it, but also to build up her personal brand, like “Miss Biffin is going to be at this fair!” People are excited to go into her tent and to see her. And then she’s also doing these exhibitions, so she knows venues where she could do her own exhibitions later, she’s making, like you said, all these connections, she’s a memorable person. So, in 1821, her contract ends, and she decides to set out. She moves to London to just become a studio artist. She has the patronage of the Earl of Morton, which is how she’s able to afford this as a single woman. You’re talking about, like, what are the logistics of this? Like, how is she painting? And I’m just so curious. How is she anything-ing? But she always had some sort of live-in assistant with her. 

Kristen: I love that they call him a manservant. I mean, I’ve been told that this is a sexist thought process, I’ve been told this by men, so I’m not really clear on if it’s just whatever. 

Ann: I discount that then. 

Kristen: But I mean, reading this, I was like, so he’s got a dude that looks like Jacob Elordi or somebody just helping her get things in her house, and I support all of this. Everybody’s getting paid, everybody knows their roles. Like, you know what? She’s a boss to me. 

Ann: She’s got it all figured out for herself in this really… Like, I know about how she did painting because this is part of what people just deduced. But when you look at her, if anyone just looks up any of her self-portraits, there’s always a little paintbrush, like, sewn onto her collar. It’s like, that’s just there all the time. So, it’s like, okay, we know that that’s the shoulder she used. But everything, I’m just like, she’s got it all figured out. But I think also she would have to stay in the festival circuit until she had enough money not just to pay for her own rent and everything, but also to pay a salary for this full-time helper that she requires. 

So, she’s hustling, she’s getting it done. It’s really, really impressive to me that she’s a disabled woman, unmarried, goes to London to start up her own art studio. Like, if you remove the disability from that, I’m still like, “Oh, my god!” Just to be a woman at all, just going on your own in 1821 to London to just be like, “I’m just going to be a working class… I’m going to do this.” But she exhibits at the Royal Academy of Arts, where she is awarded a silver medal for her work. 

So, what the category was, and I got some of the details from this book, because at first I just read, she won the silver medal for… The category was like “A woman who copies a famous historical painting in miniature” category, which is like, a pretty, you know, “Best sound effects, editing,” like, it’s getting pretty niche what the category is. But then I also read that, like, because the awards were all for men, there’s just one category that is kind of like “Other.” 

Kristen: Other person. I love that. 

Ann: And so, she won the silver medal for, like, person who did something that’s not covered by any of the other categories. And in her case, she did copy. A lot of what her art training was, and a lot of what everyone’s art training was, was looking at famous paintings and then copying them, because that’s how you learn how to make your painting look like that. Anyway, she won the silver medal and like, I love this for her, she wore it. She wore it! 

Kristen: Hell, yeah! Wear it all the time. 

Ann: Every day for the rest of her life. 

Kristen: Exactly. I’d be like, “I won the silver medal, and I have no hands.” Like, those are just going to be my two monikers. 

Ann: So, she had the medal, like, in some of her self-portraits, you can see that she’s got it on a chain that she wears. And the medal was like, it’s a really prestigious award that she won. It’s just kind of funny that the category was like “Other.” The medal was, like, forged; it had a copy of her painting in silver on it, and then the name of her, and the name of her painting. It probably said like, “no hands” somewhere on it as well. [Kristen chuckles] So, she’s just, like, self-promoting. So, she shows up anywhere, she’s like, “Oh, hey, it’s me. Remember me? No hands, won the silver medal that I’m wearing.” 

Kristen: I’d love to think she has a jacket, like a jean jacket, emblazoned with “No hands” on the back. 

Ann: [laughs] #NoHands. 

Kristen: She would have totally done that. 

Ann: So, she wins this medal, she’s doing amazing. And then, just through her various connections, like through the Earl of Morton and with, now, the British royal family, she goes on a trip with the Earl of Morton to Brussels, where she is hired by the crown prince there to be his miniature artist for a while. So, she’s doing… Like, for an artist, the goal is to get royal commissions because that’s as much as you can be paid, and that’s the most prestige you can possibly get. But also, she’s travelling! She’s left, she’s been all over the UK, and now she is in Brussels. I’m trying to picture also too, like, carriages would be involved, trains are not invented yet. So, she’s just like… Her and her manservant, Jacob Elordi. [laughs] 

Kristen: Yeah, they’re just travelling all over the landscape right there. That’s going to be part of our eventual adaptation of the story. 

Ann: I think that would be a beautiful sequence of the carriage ride. 

Kristen: A carriage montage through Brussels. Like, oh, my god. Get like, you know, Rodrigo Prieto to shoot it or something, like, just chef’s kiss. 

Ann: I know. Well, now I’m just picturing sort of like a Sophia Coppola, just, you know, the bored person looking out the window of a travelling thing. It’s just like, Sarah Biffin would be like, “Ohhh.” [laughs]

Kristen: “No hands. I’ve got to paint. I’m here with this dude in this carriage.” 

Ann: Okay. So, now we’re going to get into what I think in the movie… I don’t know how the movie would handle this, and I’ve got some late-breaking news on the situation, but she gets married. And this is a situation that no one can quite figure out what the situation was. One theory is that she and her, like, personal branding genius brain is like, “I will do better if I am a married woman, because then I’ll be seen as more respectable. So, I just need to, in name only, marry someone, so I can become Mrs.” 

Kristen: Making a Taylor Swift decision. Like, “I’ve got to get married.” So, she’s got to find a Travis Kelce. 

Ann: I don’t know if she found a Travis Kelce. Who she found was William… 

Kristen: She was looking for a Travis Kelce, and she probably ended up with, like, a Martin Short, which is still pretty good. I mean. 

Ann: What she ends up with is that other guy Taylor Swift was with, that guy from that band, the like, greasy British guy. 

Kristen: Oh, Matty Healy. [laughs]

Ann: That’s who she gets. So, she ends up with Matty Healy, AKA a retired Navy guy/banker’s clerk named William Stephen Wright. So, they get married, we know this. She starts signing her pictures as “Mrs. Wright, with no hands.” 

Kristen: With no hands, of course. 

Ann: Which is funny to me because she made such a name for herself as Sarah Biffin. Like, this was her brand for 20 years, and now you’re going to change it? 

Kristen: I mean, yeah, I mean, at least go like Sarah Biffin Wright. Like, you know, do like a Priyanka Chopra Jonas thing, or something. 

Ann: Or something like “Mrs. Wright, formerly known as Sarah Biffin.” 

Kristen: “The artist formerly known as Sarah Biffin.” I mean, why not? Just Prince it up. 

Ann: So, she marries this guy, and it seems as though they never cohabitate, they never have anything to do with each other. So, it really feels to me, not this, but like a green card marriage, where she just found someone to marry her.

Kristen: Definitely, yeah. It’s definitely a visa relationship. 

Ann: Yeah. So, their relationship, like, they get married, they don’t seem to have anything to do with each other at all, but then he somehow becomes involved with her financial stuff, where it’s like, “Wait, did this guy marry her for some sort of shady reason?” Maybe? Well, maybe she’s like, “I just need to become a Mrs. because that’s the next level in my branding journey.” And he’s like, “You have a lot of money. I will marry you and then manage that money.” So, we don’t know exactly what is going on here. It’s not a love match. 

Kristen: This is why the prenup can be a beneficial thing. 

Ann: Yeah. So, this situation, the whole thing is just kind of like, in the movie, in the bad movie, I think this is where you’re going to bring on that— Who’s the guy who plays Lestat on the vampire…? 

Kristen: Oh, Sam Reid! 

Ann: You bring in Sam Reid and just to be, like, smouldery looks at her, to be like— 

Kristen: This is the hottest movie ever. I mean, it’s going to burn up the screen. I’m ready for this. 

Ann: Yeah. So, you bring him in, and like, I think if you’re going to write this as a novel, if you’re going to make this as a movie, you need to make sense of this situation, which is just this guy just kind of comes and then he’s just gone, and she’s Mrs. Wright now. And like, who was he? Where did he go? What was that? I don’t know. 

Kristen: It’ll be a fever dream sequence. We’re going to need, like, some psychedelic images or something, yeah. 

Ann: She wakes up, and she’s just like, “Wait, I’m married. Who is that person?” 

Kristen: She’s like, “Wait, I’m married?” And then, she goes to bed again and wakes up, “Wait, I’m not married anymore? I mean, okay.” 

Ann: “I’m married, but there’s no change to my life at all. Okay? But I’m Mrs. Wright, no hands, now.” 

So, she pauses her painting career at this point. I think she just has enough money that she can just, like, rest for a while, and good for her. She’s been nonstop self-promoting for, what, 25 years? It’s like, yeah, let’s just take a break. Let’s just hang out with my not-husband who’s not here. 

Anyway, but what happens is so 1824, they get married, she takes a pause from painting, and then tragically, George Douglas, the Earl of Morton, dies 1827. And that was her income, was him supporting her. So, this is kind of like, she gets back to painting is what she does. She also, like so many other creative people today, and that we’ve talked about in the podcast before, she also starts teaching painting because that’s the way to make some money. What’s really interesting to me is that just some of the flyers were in this book I was looking at, where they’re talking about how she was advertising her services. So, it’s like “Come to her house, and she’ll teach you painting,” or “She’ll teach you through correspondence courses,” which I love. 

Kristen: [laughs] I do, though. I do wonder if people got confused because she’s going to be all, “Learn painting,” and people are going to be all, “Right. But am I learning painting, or am I going to learn painting with no hands? What am I learning here?” 

Ann: Yeah. And what she’s advertising is just “Come train with Mrs. Wright, and a painter who’s been exhibited. She won a silver medal.” It doesn’t say “Come learn the no-hands method,” she’s just saying, “I will teach you to paint.” So, presumably, as far as we know, she’s not teaching disabled people to paint. 

Kristen: I would love it if there was just a wave of people engaging in this art style where they’re like, they have hands, they have arms, and they’re just like, “I learned this method… Wait, people aren’t doing this? They’re using their hands?” 

Ann: “Hands?” Yeah, so she’s teaching people painting. I think what a lot of the especially the correspondence stuff was, people would paint and then they would mail the painting to her, and then she would look at it and then she would write some notes like, “Oh, you should put some more orange in this part, and you should do this in this part,” and then send. So, she’s kind of like providing editing feedback to… Anyway. What is this now? Like, her fourth income stream? She’s exhibiting, she’s painting, she’s taking commissions, and now she’s teaching. This is the millennial hustle, like, this is so much today. It’s like, she’s on YouTube, she’s got a Substack, she’s got some sponcon. She’s doing everything she can. 

So, this is where she starts kind of moving around a bit. I think it just gets expensive to live in London when you don’t have a royal patron anymore. So, she’s kind of going place to place, and when she gets to a new place, she will just do an exhibition and then be like, “Did you like the paintings in this exhibition? Want me to teach you how to paint?” 

Kristen: “Want to learn the no-hands method?”

Ann: [laughs] So, she’s just kind of moving around to various places. She exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts a few more times. You know, her patron is gone, but she’s still built up this like… I don’t know if it’s a community necessarily, but it’s just, like, she’s so well known, she’s this popular miniature artist, people know who she is, and she’s won these people over, right? Like, she’s memorable, they hire her, and she’s such a pleasure to work with. Everybody is happy to keep helping her out, which becomes more and more necessary financially, as we’ll see. 

Oh, yeah! So, this is from one of the articles that was saying, people were just – as we were talking about before – so interested in just like, “How does she do anything? Explain her life to me?” So, one American journal included an item talking about her wedding ceremony was held. So, it said that her husband held the ring against her shoulder – because no hands, can’t put a ring on a hand – and then afterwards, he put the ring on a gold chain, and then she wore it around her neck, which she is wearing in some of her portraits. 

Kristen: I mean, okay. It would have been cooler if he had fashioned an earring or something out of it, and she just wore it as, like, a lone earring or something. 

Ann: The earring on, yeah. 

Kristen: Yeah. That would have been cool. 

Ann: That would have been more interesting. But there’s so few details like this, about like, how did she do daily tasks? I am like all those people. I’m just like, I don’t want to watch her drink tea necessarily, but I’m just like, “Did she have a wheelchair? If so, what did it look like?” Like, I just want to know what’s her day-to-day? What accoutrements does she have? Like, I would just love to know. 

Kristen: These are questions. I’m right there with you. 

Ann: So, she’s painting… Oh, yeah, this is the part I was talking about. When she was in, I think, in Brighton, which is interesting. Brighton, a place that I mention in my book, that’s the resort town popularized by Caroline of Brunswick’s husband, Prinny, George IV, who Sarah Biffin was hired to paint a miniature of, George IV. 

Kristen: Small world. 

Ann: The Regency era. But, you know, Prinny is always going to show up in every story. So, there’s a description of her because she also [laughs]… So, this is interesting because I just learned this. So, as her, like, fifth to sixth income stream, she invites people into her house to just watch her painting. So, it’s kind of like what she was doing on the festival circuit, but now just in her home. She’s combining, but it’s kind of like this self… Like, there’s not somebody else making her do this. So, people can just come by and watch her do her painting because she needs money, and she knows people want to watch her, so, like, why not charge people? She has to do the painting. 

But this is where we get this description of a woman who took painting lessons from her. So, Sarah Biffin, circa 1829, was described as “a heavy-looking woman. She wore a turban and was always seated on a sofa,” which side note, that’s some information about how is she navigating day-to-day life; she sits on her sofa. 

Her paintbrush was pinned to a large puff sleeve, which covered the short stump of the upper part of the arm. She fixed and removed the paintbrush with her teeth when necessary to wash the brush. When painting, she leaned her right shoulder forward, almost touching the table. She declared that she considered that for painting, she had the advantage of those who had arms, for surely it was easier to paint with a short brush than with a long stick. 

I did want to mention, because it said the thing about like the stump of the arm or whatever, and this woman wouldn’t have known that because Sarah Biffin always sewed her sleeves shut so nobody could see what was going on in the shoulder area. 

So, this is how we get sort of the image of her, like, head close to the table. I do think, like you were saying about shoulder pain and stuff, this is the amount of painting she had to be doing, like, to get into that position. I’m sure she’s been doing this for years. 

Kristen: Definitely got arthritis and whatnot. Like, there’s a lot of issues. 

Ann: I know. And physio not invented yet. So, yeah. Her manservant would carry her when she needed to move. [laughs] 

Kristen: I love it. I want to see this. 

Ann: This is a beautiful image in my mind. 

Anyway, so she finally settles in… This era of her life, of kind of like, her patron is dead, she’s teaching, she’s exhibiting, people pay to watch her do the painting. Like, she does this for 10 years-ish. This is just kind of what she’s up to, just hustling, hustling, hustling. And then, as she’s, like, maybe the shoulder pain contributes to all of this, but her health starts to suffer. Also, she starts to lose her eyesight. I wonder if that’s like, starts to lose her eyesight, or if it’s like she needs glasses now, but it’s oldey times and no one really understands the glasses. I don’t know. 

Kristen: Possibly. I’m not versed in Regency optometry. 

Ann: I am only slightly. I only know that one of the… Actually, we’re going to get to this. One of the royal princesses did have glasses because I saw them on an exhibit once. She needed glasses so extremely that even though it’s, like, unseemly for a woman to have glasses, but she needed them so badly, she’s even painted in portraits wearing the glasses. Like, this is… She wore her glasses. 

So, her health is deteriorating, and she is not able to paint as much as she was, or as skillfully as she was able to, because of health problems. This is where her community, I’ll use the word community, like rise up, because she has so many friends, she’s such a beloved figure, et cetera. They put together what I think of as sort of like a Kickstarter combined with a Patreon, where they’re like, “Can people take out monthly subscriptions of paying her money to live and to pay her manservant?” And one of the people who’s involved in this is Jenny Lind from The Greatest Showman. 

Kristen: The Greatest Showman, yes. I love that! Finally, Jenny using that power for good. 

Ann: Mm-hmm. So, she’s one of the people involved in this. As part of this, this is where the art is kind of like appealing to everybody. What did they say? They put an ad in the newspaper, I think. 

To those who have at any time whiled away their hour in her studio, listened to her anecdotes, joined in her cheerful laugh, or been impressed with admiration at her persevering talents, this appeal is more especially made.

So, just ask, like, ”Can everybody please…?” And it’s like, would you care to make a monthly donation to Sarah Biffin? It’s not just like, “Give me some money.” It’s like, “Would you like to become a monthly patron to Sarah Biffin?” And they write to Charles Dickens. And what does Charles Dickens…? Like, Charles Dickens, [laughs] his reply survives. He declined to contribute because he said, “Of the enormous number of similar applications of which he was in continual receipt.” 

Kristen: He says, “There’s too many crippled people asking me for money, and I can’t accommodate them.” So, okay, this is what I’ve been holding in for the last hour. So, Charles Dickens is an asshole, and he ruined disability for everybody, and I’m glad he’s dead. Here’s the thing. He publishes A Christmas Carol in 1846, and he creates Tiny Tim, this character that is this saintly little boy that everybody falls in love with because he is sickly and disabled. But he’s disabled in that he’s got a crutch, and he’s just got a waxy pallor. There’s been a lot of criticism about, like, “What did Tiny Tim suffer from?” And most people say it probably was malnourishment. So, you know, the question of whether he’s a disabled character, like… 

But regardless, the whole point of it is that England at this time goes mad for Tiny Tim, a character that is not real, by the way, they start putting up Tiny Tim homes, they want to take care of the disabled. And so, for Dickens, to have created this disabled guy, and profit off of the character, and have everybody be all “I want to help the disabled because Tiny Tim,” and then to have him look at a disabled person and be like, “Sorry, you aren’t some waxy pallor Dickensian street wave that is cute anymore. You’re just a regular old disabled chick. I can’t give you money.” That guy can go just piss up a rope.” 

Ann: And also, what Charles Dickens does is he’s like, “I’m not going to contribute to her appeal,” and then after she dies, he includes disparaging references to her in Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Little Dorrit. 

Kristen: He spends he creates a disabled character that made everybody believe that disabled people were childlike, cute, physically appealing little angels in the house. And then, spends the majority of his time acting like, “But, you know, real disabled people, especially disabled women… Chunky hags I don’t want to look at, and I’m going to proceed to just write this burn book all the time about how she’s this horrible, disgusting figure.” Again, Charles Dickens sucks. And if you are a person that thinks Tiny Tim is awesome, I do not want to talk to you about it. 

Ann: It’s the surprise, like, jump scare of Charles Dickens appearing in this story just to do the absolute worst. 

Kristen: To have Charles Dickens… I think what is just hilarious is for him to create this disabled character as he sees it, that is, childlike and perfect, and just disabled enough, you know? But again, it’s that perseverance, right? Tiny Tim ain’t asking for money. Tiny Tim is making old rich men smile with his little “Hello, Governor” candour, okay? And he’s just providing yucks, you know, not the yucks like bad, but like yuck-yucks. He’s providing yucks and happiness to a crusty old guy with a lot of money, you know, and just making him feel like such good people. No. That’s what he sees disabled people. He doesn’t want to see a real disabled woman, that’s like “It’s really fricking expensive in England. Can you maybe give a monthly donation? You know, like put it next to your milk delivery?” He’s like, “Yeah, no. What have you done today, Sarah Biffin, no hands, to make me smile? Nothing.” 

Ann: [laughs] Yeah. You know what Tiny Tim is? I feel like he’s like, “Oh, I’m just grateful my parents didn’t give me away to the orphanage when I was born.” 

Kristen: Yeah, Tiny Tim, who, again, not a real person, but England really thought he was real. Tiny Tim is just like, “Oh, Charles Dickens. Thank you so much for inventing me. I think you’re awesome and you’re pretty and everybody thinks you’re awesome and great.” And yes, Sarah Biffin is sitting over here with no hands, being like, “But I paint!” And I think there’s going to be a scene where Dickens is like, “Nobody thinks your painting is good, no hands!” 

Ann: Yes. Yeah, he grabs the medal, throws it on the ground. 

Kristen: [laughs] Exactly. Exactly. He’s like, “You’re just a disabled person. Nobody wants that. They want Tiny Tim, with his waxy little skin and his halfpenny. He’s just so charming. What have you done other than create 18 lines of work for yourself?” 

Ann: You know, the timeline doesn’t work out because I will say, spoiler, not spoiler, but I mean, Sarah Biffin, she passes away in 1850, age 66. Charles Dickens outlives her, so our movie can’t end with her killing Charles Dickens. 

Kristen: Oh damn.

Ann: But I think our movie could end with the ghost of Sarah Biffin killing Charles Dickens.

Kristen: Or, it could end with a disabled person reading his book in front of him, and he’s like, “Hey, that’s A Christmas Carol. I wrote that book. What do you think about it?” And they’d be like all, “I think it’s derivative, and you suck, and I hate you. I’m a disabled person, and you’ve ruined my life,” and then they throw it in the mud. And then the carriage that we saw through our brilliant, beautiful Brussels montage runs over it, and he’s just like… Yeah. I just want to zoom in on his shocked and disappointed face. 

Ann: The movie definitely needs to end with Charles Dickens losing. 

Kristen: Oh yeah, definitely. Like ‘80s villain style. We need like, a sweep the leg Karate Kid moment or something.

Ann: And then everybody on the street, like at the end of Dangerous Liaisons, where everyone comes in close, and they’re all like “Oh, you’re a bad person.” Everyone looks at Charles Dickens like, “Mm-mm. Mm-mm.” 

Kristen: Shame! Yeah, we need to have somebody follow him around with, like, the shame bell or something. 

Ann: The shame bell, absolutely. 

So, Sarah Biffin, she has various health concerns, some sort of stomach issue ultimately is what she dies of, age 66 in 1850. She is buried in Liverpool at St James Cemetery, although her grave is no longer able to be found because people don’t take care of things because people are terrible. Anyway, a few months before she died, she had one last exhibition at the 1850 Royal Academy of Arts exhibition. 

And then, just to briefly touch on, so we talked about her miniature was sold at auction in 2019 for £137,500, which is the most ever that a miniature from that era by anyone was ever sold for, and it was much more than they expected to sell it for. The first exhibition of her work in a hundred years, because she was exhibiting throughout her whole life, was called Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin, was held in the galleries of Philip Mould & Co in London in 2022. Some Sarah Biffin miniatures pop up here and there; when they pop up, they go on auction, and now everybody knows they’re expensive. So, I think people are trying to see, like, “Oh, do we have any of these miniatures?” 

And so, we have a few minutes left, and I hope that you can help me go through these categories quickly to score Sarah Biffin in our four categories for Vulgar History that we do. The first category is Scandaliciousness: how scandalous was she seen by society at the time? And I feel like not at all really. 

Kristen: Yeah, it’s a 0. Like, she didn’t really have a lot of scandal. There’s nothing that we’ve said, aside from the imaginary feud I’ve created between her and Dickens. So yeah, I’m gonna say no. Zero scandal. 

Ann: Because I think the fact that she… Like, she was in the fair, but everyone was just kind of like delighted by what she was doing. 

Kristen: Yeah, she’s not doing anything particularly… Like, there’s a difference between drinking tea and painting versus like, come into this tent and you’ll see a chick you know with tassels. So, not scandalous. 

Ann: There’s nothing scandalous at all in her story, I don’t think. I wonder if part of that is because she was not seen as a sexualized person. 

Kristen: Very true. Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, disability at that time, there was an emphasis on emphasizing the mundane because again, it was more about the inspiration. So, yeah. And again, eugenics is still very popular at this time too, so we didn’t want disabled people procreating. So, it’s not surprising. 

Ann: Yeah. Just a lot of the scandal often comes from people being seen as being promiscuous or whatever, and that was just never anything that anyone ever said about her ever, because that was not part of her personal brand. 

The next category is the Schemieness, which, I think she was actually so schemey. I think she was so good at finding the right… Like, winning over the right people who would help support her, all the self-branding stuff, getting married just so she could be like “Oh, I’m a respectable married woman now.” She had to pivot to teaching. I feel like she was definitely always thinking ahead. 

Kristen: She’s definitely a 7 on the schemey scale. The fact that she was able to do so many different things, and again, people were just like, “We want to help you.” You know, she was clearly doing it right, that people still wanted to support her even when she was, like, financially destitute. Most people don’t… You know, somebody calls me looking for money, I’m usually like, “Click,” depending on the situation. But no. People wanted to continue to help her, and whether that’s because she was disabled and they felt bad for her or not, she’s still scheming. I love it. 

Ann: Well, and I think also the way that she was on the fair circuit, but she found a way to also start her own independent entrepreneurial business on the side, so she was set up so when her contract ended, she could just go right out and do that, and she had all the contacts, she had everything set up. I feel like she was so savvy, just for anyone, for any entrepreneur today. I think she’s just had these killer instincts, and she got it all done; she made it all happen for herself. 

The next category is Significance, which I would say is to disable disability history, to art history. 

Kristen: I mean, she definitely gets a 9 there. She’s so important, and the fact that I didn’t know about her is a shame. I think that, again, disability history is still relatively new history, and we should know the people that were invested in culture at that time. So, she definitely shaking up the art scene, shaking up the disability scene. We need to know her name. 

Ann: And I mean, just in terms of significance, like, she is mentioned in four to five Charles Dickens novels. 

Kristen: Exactly. You know, infamy sometimes… I mean, if she had been alive in these times, she’d have been all like, “Why are you so obsessed with me, Dickens?” 

Ann: Yeah. She’d be like, “Dickens, I just made you this miniature that will self-destruct and blow up in your face.” That’s the end of the movie, is that he gets a little miniature in the mail, and then it just, like, a bullet comes out of it somehow. [Kristen laughs] 

So, the final category is what we call the Sexism Bonus, which is like, how much did being a woman living in a patriarchy hold her back? For context, I did read in this book about some other disabled artists of the time, and the thing is, whether you’re disabled or not, male artists get paid more per commission, male artists get more opportunities, male artists… Just whatever you’re doing, like, they’re able to charge more to come to their house and watch them paint. She just could have made more money, basically. 

Kristen: Definitely, yeah. And I think disability also is something that is limiting in the grand scheme of things. Ableism plays such a role in things, and even though she was getting opportunities for a disabled person, which is amazing, you have to wonder how many opportunities she didn’t get because of her own limitations, as well as people assuming that she couldn’t do it. 

Ann: Well, and then, like, the challenges she had travelling. and the fact that her household income, she had to pay for a full-time carer. 

Kristen: Yeah, I mean, all of that costs money, and she probably might have been… You know, I forget how much the average disabled person spends on living expenses, but it’s always more than an able person because we require accommodation. 

Ann: Well, and this is part of why I think it’s admirable that she was hustling so hard, but the reason she had to was for these reasons. 

Kristen: Yeah, exactly. 

Ann: Her cost of living was just higher for being a woman on her own and for being disabled. So, in terms of the Sexism Bonus, I don’t know, to put a number on that. 

Kristen: Definitely would put, like, a 7 probably. 

Ann: Okay. So, this lands her with a total score of 23 out of 40. Just for context, that puts her in… Well, for instance, Jane Austen has a 22, so she has one more point than Jane Austen. [laughs] 

Kristen: Love to see it. 

Ann: Nothing against Jane Austen. I did an episode about these Regency era lesbians, the Ladies of Llangollen, they’re at 23, and I think she would have loved to have painted them. 

Kristen: She would have definitely partied with them. 

Ann: I think she would have loved to have gone to their little house, their little hobbit house, and just had a nice time, honestly. But it seems like everyone had a nice time with her. I think her social skills were clearly… Got her in the room. Well, I guess her disability made her memorable, and then her social skills kept her in the room, and then her art talent made people give her money. 

Kristen: Exactly. 

Ann: The perfect storm. Kristen, can you just quickly tell everybody again the name of your book? 

Kristen: Yeah, it’s called Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Being Disabled in the Movies. You can buy it wherever you buy your books, Amazon, you know, your local library, request it through them, however you want to consume it. There is an audiobook for people who have visual, or don’t like to read their books that way. Yeah, so it’s available in all formats. Please consider buying it. 

Ann: And I do also want to just suggest that everybody should follow you on your website, The Film Maven…

Kristen: Thank you!

Ann: … because you do such good— Well, you do essays and things, and that’s important as well, but your film reviews are so useful to me personally because I like reading reviews by somebody who thinks a lot like I do. When you recommend a movie, I’m like, “I’ve never heard of that, but Kristen likes it, so maybe I’ll like it,” and I always do. 

Kristen: Yeah, it’s TheFilmMaven.com. I do all sorts of things. I do a series, kind of similar, if you like stuff like this. I started a new series called “Women They Warned You About,” looking at women in Hollywood who they’ve been labelled difficult. I just did my inaugural piece on Katherine Heigl, and then I have an upcoming episode or an upcoming article on Lupe Vélez. 

Ann: So, everybody needs to follow Kristen in all the things that she’s doing. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode, and for brainstorming a pretty amazing movie. I think we’re ready to pitch this. Royal patrons, if you want to invest in this movie idea, my DMs are open. [laughs] 

Kristen: [laughs] Yeah. We’ve got casting, it’s gonna be great. So, yes, thank you so much for letting me hang out! 

Ann: Yeah, it’s been such a good time. Thank you so much.

—————

So, as Kristen said, she has her website, The Film Maven, which is where you can find all of her film reviews. She is, I will say, I always like to see her takes on things, and I often agree with, you know, she talks about a movie I’ve never heard of, and she says it’s great, and I see it, and I’m like “Oh, it is great.” I very much vibe with her take on things. She is one of the film critics who had positive things to say about the recent Wuthering Heights movie, which makes me intrigued to see it. I haven’t seen it yet; I’ve been busy but I hope to see it soon. 

Anyway, I really suggest you follow Kristen and her podcast Ticklish Business, which I have recorded a guest spot for and I think it came out last week, actually. Anyway, if you want to hear me talk about the movie version of Pride and Prejudice on Ticklish Business, that’s a thing I did. And then, of course, her new book, Popcorn Disabilities. 

I also have a book, it’s called Rebel of the Regency: The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain’s Uncrowned Queen, it is now available for sale all over the place. I know some of you have already picked up a copy, many of you have already read it, and I would really appreciate if you have done so, if you’ve ordered, if you’ve read it, it’s really helpful for me just to let more people know about the book. The way that you can help with that is if you leave a review for the book on Amazon and/or on Goodreads, because that just kind of shows the algorithm that there’s enthusiasm about this book, so it makes the algorithm feature it to other people who might be interested in it as well. So, if you could do that favour for me, just leave a nice little… Even just rate it. Just give it a little five stars, even if you don’t want to say anything about it. Or you could just say, “Ann wrote this book, she’s great, and I think everyone should read this book.” You know, whatever you want to say about the book. But I will say, the response has been so fabulous. It’s been so great to meet people at the various events I’ve been doing. 

My big news is that I have another event coming up. I’m going to be in London, England! I’m going there for my personal reasons, but I have made the time to meet up with the Tits Out Brigade in London. So, if you would like to take part in that meetup, and I’m not sure what it’s going to be, is it going to be a bookstore event? Are we going to all meet in a pub somewhere? Are we going to all stroll around a park? I don’t know, and it really depends on how many people are coming. So, please RSVP so I can figure out how many people are coming, and then we can make a plan of where and when we’re going to meet. Although I do know the date. We’re going to be meeting on Sunday, March 15th in London, England. If you want to take part in that, I would be so excited to see you, and you can RSVP at VulgarHistory.com/RSVP. 

We’ll be back next week with another episode of Vulgar History. We’re going to be having a very special episode talking about, actually, someone with a big connection to London, England and to British history. I’ll leave it at that, but until next time, keep your pants on and your tits out.

Vulgar History is researched, scripted, and hosted by Ann Foster. Editor is Cristina Lumague. Theme music is by the Severn Duo. Regency Era artwork by Karyn Moynihan. Social media videos by Magdalena Denson. Transcripts of this podcast are available at VulgarHistory.com by Aveline Malek. You can get early, ad-free episodes of Vulgar History by becoming a paid member of our Patreon at Patreon.com/AnnFosterWriter. Vulgar History merchandise is available at VulgarHistory.com/Store for Americans and for everyone else at VulgarHistory.Redbubble.com. Follow us on social media @VulgarHistoryPod. Get in touch with me via email at VulgarHistoryPod@gmail.com.

References:

Learn more about Sarah Biffin’s work (and view some of her paintings) at the “Without Hands” exhibition page.

Buy Kristen’s book POPCORN DISABILITIES (affiliate link)

Follow Kristen’s film writing at The Film Maven

Listen to Kristen’s podcast Ticklish Business 

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