Chosen by my very small book group as our January read, A History of Britain in 21 Women did seem very appropriate as the first book for a feminist book group to read at the start of 2018. The year which sees the centenary of some women getting the vote. We met to discuss it on Wednesday evening (there were a jaw dropping seven of us – almost a crowd) – but more of that later.
It is worth pointing out, author Jenni Murray is clear, that this is a very personal selection. I think if you asked any group of people who would make their list they would all look very different. I fully admit I raised an eye brow at the inclusion of one or two and wondered at the exclusion of others. In reality, the book is twenty-one chapters of short biographies, there is very little from one chapter that feeds into another. Still, it does provide some fascinating information, the stories of many of these women are quite extraordinary.
The book begins with Boadicea (she insists on Boadicea rather than the more accepted Boudicca) and ends with Nicola Sturgeon. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I would be writing about a book. In between we have; Elizabeth I, Aphra Behn, Caroline Herschel, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstoncraft, Jane Austen, Mary Somerville, Mary Seacole, Ada Lovelace, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ethel Smyth, Constance Markievicz, Gwen John, Nancy Astor, Barbara Castle, Margaret Thatcher and Mary Quant. There were a few names there completely new to me – others who I had fully expected to be included in a book of this kind.
There is quite a lot to like in this book, which is remarkably readable. Two of my favourite chapters were the Fanny Burney and Mary Quant chapters, which were possibly not the chapters I had expected to like most. Fanny Burney who lived to her late nineties, despite having had to endure a mastectomy for breast cancer – without anaesthetic when she was in her late fifties. Extracts from Burney’s letters to her sister about the experience are produced and make for jaw dropping reading – not for the faint hearted. I already loved Fanny Burney as a writer but to have come through that horrific, traumatising experience and live a further forty years is surely testament to her strength as a woman. Fanny, I take my metaphorical hat off to you.
“Burney’s is the first example I have come across of a woman writing so intimate an event as a diagnosis of breast cancer and mastectomy.”
Mary Quant – not someone I had considered very much before – really gave women their freedom in clothes. Suddenly, it was ok to have fun with fashion, look good and feel good, she gave women the freedom of movement. She even had a massive effect on the cosmetic industry.
“Her impact on the cosmetic industry was huge, but men working in the industry often had difficulty in following her thinking. Why, they would ask, would women need a waterproof mascara? It seems so obvious, but it was Mary who told them that women swim and sometimes they cry.”
I also loved the chapters about Aphra Behn and the suffragists Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst – women whose influence is surely still felt today.
Margaret Thatcher – love or loathe her (I do still loathe her even though she is dead) had to be included – I would have been shocked had she not had a chapter. As one of the book group members said on Wednesday night – she is a pretty hard sell. However, Jenni Murray does a good job with Maggie – and it is very obvious in several places where Murray sits politically and it’s nowhere near Thatcherism. As a journalist, Murray met Thatcher a couple of times and it is from this position that she writes about her – and the chapter is short.
“At one point in the late afternoon the crowd trying to get close to her was so pressing she was surrounded by half a dozen huge, burly policeman. I had lost my cameraman and sound recordist in the melee, but I’d managed to stay close to the leading lady. I found myself being squeezed painfully between her fans and her police protectors. A hand popped out from behind the coppers. It grabbed mine and pulled me into the circle.
‘Come along, dear,’ she smiled ‘Stay by me. We don’t want a talented young journalist to be squashed to death, do we?’
So far so good, however, I did have a few small quibbles with the book that went beyond who was in and who was out. Firstly, there is no index, and in the Elizabeth I chapter, Murray makes reference to historical novels – particularly those of Philippa Gregory, I found that rather hard to forgive. In a world of well known, popular historians, I think referencing historical novels a bit lazy. The title is perhaps a little mis-leading, perhaps a better one as my book group discussed – would have been, a history of Jenni Murray’s Britain in 21 women.
This made for a great book group discussion. As a group of seven women – we certainly couldn’t have come up with a definitive list of who should or shouldn’t have been included. We all accepted that this is a very personal selection. Overall, we each enjoyed the book on some level – and I think we were all impressed by Fanny Burney. One member was particularly excited by the scientists who were included, for her the book really got going when she got to Ada Lovelace. Writers, scientists, artists and politicians, whatever your special interest there is probably a chapter in A History of Britain in 21 Women that you would find interesting.
Although as you say, everybody’s list would be different, but I am amazed Florence Nightingale was missed out. Having recently read a biography of her, I found she not only revolutionised nursing, but was a driving force in Army reform and was also a pioneer of statistics.
I was surprised at that too, though she included Mary Seacole instead, and Florence Nightingale was mentioned in the course of the chapter.
Sounds really interesting, Ali. I think you’re right that any book like this is going to be subjective but that’s possibly half the fun – seeing who other people would choose. And interesting about Thatcher because I loathe the woman too, though it *is* probably hard to be objective about her influence now. I would have the same quibbles as you, but sounds as if this could be quite a dippable book – and there are several influential women included I would like to read more about!
It *is* hard to be objective about Thatcher. It is an interesting book, I appreciated finding out about women I knew little about.
This sounds interesting. I know quite a lot about some of those women but nothing at all about others. It does seem strange to use historical novels as references though, much as I enjoy reading them!
Yes, I’ve bern known to enjoy historical novels too but I wouldn’t expect them to be used as sources in this way.
I’m a little amused to see Nicola Sturgeon included on the list – I think it’s way too early to say whether she’s going to make any kind of long-lasting mark on Britain. This really isn’t a political point – I have been an on-off admirer of Sturgeon the woman for years even if I don’t agree with her politically. But including living people who are still mid-career always seems like a risk in this kind of book.
I think I was surprised to see her included because she may be the person who breaks up Britain.
I suspect her moment has passed on that one… but then every political prediction I’ve made in the last five years has been wrong, so don’t take my word for it!
I really hope you are right. I would be devastated if we separated from Scotland.
I’ve always been amazed by the fact Fanny Burney had a mastectomy in the 18th/19th C (not sure exactly when it was performed, and her life spanned both centuries). How on earth did they manage that without killing her?
I’ve read at least two of her novels, and studied a bit about her. She was a fascinating woman. I have her abridged journals in a Folio edition, one of the books from my library I bought back from the aforementioned Half Price Books shop near me, after returning to the U.S. Yes, I paid twice for many books from my former collection! Glad my reading tastes are not in the mainstream, or I’d never have gotten many of them back.
I’ve no idea how she survived. Her account of the procedure is uncompromising. Read four Burney novels, one twice. They are amazingly compelling reads for the time they were written.
I think a book like this is always going to be personal and therefore open to question. Was she saying that her own knowledge about Elizabeth I was originally drawn from novels or using them as a proper reference? If the latter, tut tut indeed!. And SEVEN of you – wow!
It was no to do with her own prior knowledge but things like: (in ref to Katherine Parr) In Philippa Gregory’s historical novel The Taming of the queen, Katherine had long been madly in love with the Lord Admiral, Thomas Seymour …
I think this is generally accepted as historical fact so why reference a novel?
Oh gosh, nightmarish – and very odd indeed!
[…] A History of Britain in 21 Women by Jenni Murray was the book chosen for January by my very small book group. A very personal selection by the author it was an interesting read, which I enjoyed overall, I did have a couple of issues with it – but they didn’t ruin the book for me. It gave us some great discussion points too. […]
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[…] will use Ali’s word and say that I had some quibbles. It was interesting in a historical sense, and included some […]