Roaring Girls: The extraordinary lives of history's unsung heroines

by Holly Kyte

Overview

‘Extraordinary’ Woman&Home

A Roaring Girl was loud when she should be quiet, disruptive when she should be submissive, sexual when she should be pure, ‘masculine’ when she should be ‘feminine’.

Meet the unsung heroines of British history who refused to play by the rules.

Roaring Girls tells the game-changing life stories of eight formidable women whose grit, determination and radical unconventionality saw them defy the odds to forge their own paths.

From the notorious cross-dressing thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to rebel slave Mary Prince and adventurer, industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these diverse characters redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain.

Bold, inspiring and powerfully written, Roaring Girls tells the electrifying histories of women who, despite every effort to suppress them, dared to be extraordinary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008423148
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	1,013,006
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Holly Kyte read Classics and English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and has since worked in publishing and journalism as an editor and literary critic. She has written for numerous newspapers, magazines and websites, including the Times Literary Supplement and the Sunday Telegraph, and after many years in London, now lives by the sea in Margate. Roaring Girls is her first book.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

The Roaring Girl Mary Frith 16

Mad Madge Margaret Cavendish 62

Old Maid Mary Astell 112

En Cavalier Charlotte Charke 158

The Amazon Hannah Snell 202

Goods and Chattels Mary Prince 244

Gentleman Jack Anne Lister 288

A Painted Wanton Carolsne Norton 350

Afterword: Unfinished Business 419

Notes 423

Acknowledgements 461

Editorial Reviews

'An extraordinary, vivacious account of eight remarkable invisible women whose stories were crying out to be heard.’ Paula Byrne

‘Extraordinary’ Woman&Home

‘Brilliant…Gung-ho girl power’ Simple Things magazine

‘Terrific!’ Diane Atkinson

‘Joyful, energetic, meticulously researched’ Professor Vivien Gardner, University of Manchester

‘A really fascinating book that delves deep and proves that history is populated by unconventional women who’s stories often go untold.’ RED Online

‘Pulls back the curtain on women’s history to tell eight extraordinary tales of courage and determination over 300 years’. S magazine

‘A bold and thought-provoking read’ CANDIS

‘Roaring Girls is a slice of inspiration from pre-20th century Britain’ Tatler

From the Publisher