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WOMEN’S LONDON by Rachel Kolsky
Celebrating the impact of a huge variety of women on London’s heritage, culture and buildings through the centuries, Women’s London: A Tour Guide to Great Lives is a beautifully illustrated guide book, published to coincide with the centenary in 2018 of some UK women getting the right to vote. Featuring surprisingly lesserknown women as well as famous, you’ll discover suffragettes and scientists, authors and artists, medical and military pioneers, reformers and royals, members of the Salvation Army Women’s Social Workers, Jewish, Caribbean and Asian migrants, women of Westminster and more. Wonderfully illustrated every step of the way, the guide takes us on a tour of the sights, plaques and streetscapes associated with women who made their mark on the nation’s capital.
The book is packed with facts; did you know, for example, that the oldest surviving Blue Plaque to a woman was unveiled in 1885 in Mayfair for Fanny Burney, who published her first novel anonymously in 1778? Or that the creator of the iconic London A-Z in 1936 was Phyllis Pearson (1906-1996), who walked thousands of miles to research London’s streets, making copious notes en route? You’re certain to learn lots of new information as you leaf through the striking colour photographs, archive images and specially commissioned maps emblazoning the pages.