Christine Charlesworth, who designed the statue of Behn, said: “My Aphra is walking but glancing behind her because she is carrying interesting things such as a theatre masks and she has a secret message up her sleeve.

“She has ink and a quill and a look of mischief on her face.

“I didn’t want her on a pedestal. I wanted people to look in her eyes and want to know her and want to stand and have a conversation with her.”

Poet and writer Charlotte Cornell is from A is for Aphra, the local group behind the project to get a statue in the city.

She said: “A statue can be a spring board for you to take yourself or someone else in a different direction if that statue is creative enough and well placed enough and well considered and of a good person who is long overdue celebrating.”