Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth, has compiled an anthology celebrating female trailblazers throughout history. Feminist History for Every Day of the Year aims to redress the balance of recorded history, where women make up roughly 50% of the population but feature in only about 0.5% of historical records.
The book is aimed at teenage readers but is equally enjoyable for adults. It comprises bite-sized stories of female achievement and the centuries-old fight for equality. Mosse writes about women “who refused to accept the limitations put on them, who campaigned and marched, battled and challenged the status quo to change the world for the better”.
The anthology features a mixture of famous and lesser-known figures, including primatologist Dian Fossey, painter Amrita Sher-Gil, Britain’s first black headteacher Beryl Gilroy, activist Malala Yousafzai, Ethiopian politician Senedu Gebru, racehorse trainer Florence Nagle, computer programmers Ada Lovelace and Dorothy Vaughan, and actor and French resistance agent Josephine Baker. Not all are straightforwardly heroic – Marie Stopes founded Britain’s first birth control clinic but also believed in eugenics.
The audiobook is narrated by Mosse and actor Adjoa Andoh, their delivery brimming with curiosity and passion. The entries are designed for each day of the year but can be dipped into at leisure.
