Reviews

I loved this book so much and undoubtedly recommend picking it up. It can act as a sort-of encyclopaedia of women from antiquity to the modern day spanning the different ages, regions, religions, classes, races, sexualities and many other differences but all were important in their own right. The book is structured into various sections (e.g. politics, education, warriors, etc) but these are rather loose given the interdisciplinary nature of us humans providing a not extensive but certainly breadth study of over a thousand women who have contributed to our shared history. Many are known but the majority were not (to me at least, and from a couple reviews I’ve read others agree) and it was truly a delight to get to know these trailblazers and what they achieved. It’s great as a starting off point to explore them more and I certainly will be doing so. It’s great at showing the way women’s tales and stories have been wrongly credited to the men around them, ignored or written out of history by those in charge of telling it. The idea of the ‘Matilda effect’ is highlighted many times and it’s devastating knowing how so many women were wrongly treated and their lives (in a sense) lost. Another notion if that of a pendulum swinging back and forth in the rights and visibility of women and how history despite being linear in dates is not often in morality.

The above makes up most of the book with a description of the woman, what they did and how they’re linked to their contemporaries. There’s also quotes flittered throughout which were a great addition. Another large section of the book and why Mosse decided to collate and write this was to better understand her great grandmother Lily Watson, a famous novelist in her day but who’s since, like so many, been forgotten. Finding this out sparked in the author a desire to do some detective work and discover how Lily lived and what she achieved and these were equally as interesting. Coming at the end of each section, she’s able to show how all these women did have their own personal life and well rounds the book.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by both Jade Anouka and Kate Mosse whilst reading along physically and this was perfect, the narration was so clear and flowed amazingly. I didn’t(/couldn’t really) read this in one go but I think taking my time and having the ability to go over parts and look into these women as I went along proved to be a great reading experience and one I’d definitely recommend.

Content Warnings