Showing titles in Women

When the First World War broke out, the suffragettes suspended their campaigning and joined the war effort. For pioneering suffragette doctors (and life partners) Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson that meant moving to France, where they set up two small military hospitals amidst fierce opposition. Yet their medical and organisational skills were so impressive that in 1915 Flora and Louisa were asked by the War Ministry to return to London and establish a new military hospital in a vast and derelict old workhouse in Covent Garden's Endell Street. 

'Eye-opening and inspirational . . . An utterly fascinating and gloriously fiery read' FELICITY CLOAKE 'A barnstorming book' GUARDIAN 'Fascinating . . . full of inspirational tales' OBSERVER Simone de Beauvoir borrowed her lover's bike to cycle around Paris in the 1940s, instantly falling in...

A Financial Times Best Summer Book 2023 A Waterstones Best True Crime Book Nagyrev, Hungary, 1929. Over 160 mysterious deaths. A group of local wives conspiring together, and one woman at the centre of it all… In 1929, a dark secret at the heart of a Hungarian farming village was finally...

Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays.... All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers? Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the 17th century to the present.

A national bestseller on its original publication in 2003, Madam Secretary is a riveting account of the life of America's first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. For eight years, during Bill Clinton's two presidential terms, Albright was a high-level participant in some of the most...

100 fascinating and brilliantly written stories about history's bravest, baddest but little known 'nasty' women from across the world. In the final debate of the 2016 US presidential election, Donald Trump leaned into the microphone as Hillary Clinton spoke about social security and called his...

THE WORLD THROUGH A FEMINIST LENSFor Nivedita Menon, feminism is not about a moment of final triumph over patriarchy but about the gradual transformation of the social field so decisively that old markers shift forever. From sexual harassment charges against international figures to the...

'Timely and fascinating' Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire What was mothering like in the past? When acclaimed historian Sarah Knott became pregnant, she asked herself this question. But accounts of motherhood are hard to find. For centuries, historians have...

***LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 JHALAK PRIZE*** A leading new exploration of the Windrush generation featuring David Lammy, Lenny Henry, Corinne Bailey Rae, Sharmaine Lovegrove, Hannah Lowe, Jamz Supernova, Natasha Gordon and Rikki Beadle-Blair. For the pioneers of the Windrush generation, Britain...

In the shadows of history's greatest conflicts, women have always been warriors—yet their stories remain untold. Women in War uncovers over twenty raw, true accounts of the fearless women who fought and served, from ancient battlefields to the jungles of Vietnam and the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Step into their combat boots: nurses dodging gunfire, spies sabotaging enemies, soldiers enduring unimaginable loss. Facing sexism, trauma, and overwhelming odds, these heroines reveal that true valor beats in the heart, not just on the battlefield.

'POETIC AND FIERCE' - Olivette Otele, author of AFRICAN EUROPEANS 'THIS SWEEPING HISTORY RESTORES WOMEN TO THE CENTRE OF AFRICAN POLITICAL POWER...BOTH ACCESSIBLE AND RIGOROUS' The Observer 'A RICH, SUMPTUOUS AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN TAPESTRY' - Candice Carty-Williams, author of QUEENIE 'A...

In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies". Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities. 

Forty years ago in China, marriage was universal, compulsory, and a woman's only means to a livelihood. Enter the one-child policy, which despite its horrors, resulted in China's first generations of urban only-daughters - girls who were raised without brothers and pushed to study, achieve, and succeed as if they were sons. Fast forward to the present, where in an urbanized economic powerhouse, enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage - or not marry at all - to spawn a label: "leftovers". Unprecedentedly well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners.

Annie is the eldest daughter of a laundress in Acton, London, raised to keep the rich families of Kensington spick-and-span. As she grows up in poverty in the 1920s and 1930s, her life centres on the family business, working long hours of hard physical labour. When she's not in the laundry she's looking after her younger brother and two stepsisters. But she's haunted by thoughts of her real father and what happened to him. All she knows is that he died in the Great War - her mother will not talk about him, and his very existence is shrouded in secrecy.

The twentieth century department store: a wonderland of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof. Dropping off the baby at nursery; an afternoon tea; a stroll through the latest fashions. A wedding (or funeral) could be planned. A Bengal Tiger cub could be purchased. Inside these towering price-tag palaces, anything was possible. They were beacons of modernity, and within this atmosphere of glamour and luxury, women dominated. Men may have owned the buildings, but inside women ruled.

Elegant, immersive, and meticulously researched, The Sultanate of Women reveals the true rulers behind the curtain—and rewrites what you thought you knew about power in a male-dominated empire. Richly detailed storytelling across 30 engaging chapters.

Brought to you by Penguin. What would women do with their lives if they had more time? The riveting, untold story of a revolutionary campaign to change the way work is valued 'The women of the world are serving notice. We want wages for every dirty toilet, every indecent assault, every painful...

Across six revealing lectures, Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson will introduce you to one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and divisive writers in Flannery O’Connor and the Scandal of Faith. Beginning with an overview of her brief but remarkable life, Professor Wilson will then take you through an exploration of themes in O’Connor’s work and the hallmarks of her literary style. You’ll get a clearer picture of O’Connor’s historical and geographical context while digging into how her stories can transcend time and place.

'This is a vital book. Hand this out in schools, in the workplace, everywhere. It's also beautifully written.' Olivia Colman 'Brilliant. Patriarchy 101' Amnesty UK 'Immersive and accessible' Dazed 'A practical guide and a refreshing perspective... This is 21st-century feminism in action' Angela...

In a world marked by profound turmoil and unspeakable horror, one young girl’s voice continues to resonate through the ages, offering a beacon of hope, resilience, and the enduring power of the human spirit. "Anne Frank" delves deep into the life and legacy of Anne Frank, exploring the nuances of her extraordinary story beyond the pages of her famous diary.