Helen Brook

1 portrait of Helen Brook

© Nick Sinclair

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Helen Brook

by Nick Sinclair
bromide print, 1992
18 1/8 in. x 13 7/8 in. (460 mm x 353 mm)
Purchased, 1992
Primary Collection
NPG P510(6)

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Nick Sinclair (1963-), Photographer. Artist or producer of 149 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Pioneering Women, p. 130 Read entry

    Helen Grace Mary Brook (1907-97), birth-control advocate and family-planning adviser, first worked as a volunteer for the Family Planning Association. In 1958, she was invited to run an independent family-planning clinic in London, where she started weekly evening sessions for unmarried women refused advice at other clinics. In 1964, she founded the first Brook Advisory Centre for women and men, young or unmarried, which opened in London, initially to opposition but later gaining medical-establishment support. Her primary aim was to reduce illegal abortion and inculcate a sense of sexual responsibility. She was a pragmatist, not condoning promiscuity but aware of how sexual attitudes and practices were evolving. As she explained in a Telegraph interview for her seventy-ninth birthday: ‘I felt that, until women were free of the fear of unwanted pregnancy, they would not be able to take up the equal opportunity of work.’ She was awarded a CBE in 1985.

  • Lydia Miller; Samira Ahmed, Inspirational Women: Rediscovering stories in Art, Science and Social Reform, 2022, p. 74
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 79

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Events of 1992back to top

Current affairs

The Church of England votes narrowly in favour of the ordination of women priests. The first women priests were ordained in 1994, inspiring the popular sitcom The Vicar of Dibley.
John Major is forced to take the pound off the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after Black Wednesday, when currency dealers continued selling sterling despite a dramatic increase in interest rates. The event damaged the Conservative party's reputation irreparably.

Art and science

The long-running sitcom Absolutely Fabulous airs for the first time on the BBC starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley as style-obsessed, middle-aged media luvvies Eddy and Patsy. June Whitfield played Eddy's mother, and Julia Sawalha her long-suffering daughter Saffy (or, 'sweetie darling').

International

Members of the European Community sign the Maastricht Treaty leading to the creation of the European Union. The treaty led to the creation of the 'Euro' currency and its policy was based on a 'three pillars structure' concerned with: 1. Community. 2 . Foreign and Security Policy. 3. Criminal Matters.
At a referendum, Bosnia and Herzegovina vote to become a separate state from Yugoslavia. Civil war soon broke out.

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