Head of Zeus, 384pp, £27.99
A controversial and attentionseeking celebrity in Restoration London, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, was also a feminist, a philosopher, and a poet. She was. ‘But Francesca Peacock makes a persuasive case for her being, as well, an author whose work is as illuminating as it is unconventional… Her satirical fantasy novel has been described as the first work of science fiction… Margaret is always the star of the show, but Peacock gives her a backing troupe of other female writers of the period, other childless women and other wives for whom marriage, however comfortable or loving, was oppressively unequal.’
