Roaring Girls: The forgotten feminists of British history

Written by Holly Kyte

Narrated by Helen Keeley

‘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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Nov 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780008271701

Reviews for Roaring Girls

[Juanita · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely fabulous!! I found each of the life stories fascinating in their own rights, a lot to think about, making me realise how much I have to be grateful for as a modern woman living in western society.

I found the last story about Caroline Norton to be the most important as it made me realise the extent of gender bias when we are taught HIS-story at school. Why don't we know about this woman??!!

Caroline's life story is in every way amazing and admirable, alone the pain she suffered as the wife of a sadistic psychopath can barely be imagined, but she turned that pain into actual laws which benefit modern women today - sadly without us knowing.

Thank you for your work, Holly, and thanks also to the narrator, who really breathes life into these interesting characters and their unique life stories.