Time To Read

women’s history

Circe by Madeline Miller

Goddess Circe is merely a player in the lives of male heroes and gods and has never commanded her own story – until now. This epic feminist adaptation of mythology is the story of survival, transformation, revenge and women’s fight to be free.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

In this electrifying revision of The Iliad , Barker wrestles the telling of the Trojan War away from its usual male-centric gaze. In reframing the story she provides Briseis the right to be author of her own story.

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

From the Queen of historical fiction, this book is the tale of one woman's ambitious ascent to royalty during the Wars of the Roses and the first in the trilogy The Cousins’ War. Gregory’s writing focuses on the women of history as, in her words, “I think that these stories should not be erased.”

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstencraft

This passionate 1792 declaration of female independence attacked the prevailing view of docile femininity and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner.

The Women’s History of the World Rosalind Miles

Men dominate history because they write it. This book offers a reappraisal which aims to re-establish women's importance at the centre of the worldwide history of revolution, empire, war and peace. As well as looking at the influence of ordinary women, it looks at those who have shaped history.