Radical Victorians

Radical Victorians written by James Hobson and published by Pen & Sword Books

- £20.00 - Hardback - Pages 232

There is more to the Victorian era than respectability, economic success and the grudging solution of the practical social problems they encountered. The politicians, generals and commercial classes have been well covered in popular history books, but there were also thinkers of radical and unsettling ideas who had a real influence at the time. Many were women, many from the middle and working classes, and almost all outside the power structure. They were by no means all fringe ideas either – in 1840, Queen Victoria herself attended a séance, for example.

The book is a biography focused history of some of these challenging ideas and the men and women who promoted them. It looks at radical thinkers and movers, the people who stepped outside of the social norm and propelled the Victorians towards the modern day.

A lovely little book that looks at different individuals of the Victorian age, but these people are radical thinkers and practitioners. These aren’t necessarily well-known names but they are important in their own little areas of expertise or dominance. The book is split into 15 chapters with each chapter following individual men and women. The chapters look at particular subjects and the radical thinkers in that subject such as Temperance, Spiritualism, Birth Control and radical journalism. Whilst had heard about some of these people, especially quite a few of the women these characters were from more the second level of prominence. The book was an interesting and easy read, and in fact it was nice to hear about these lesser characters or people. This book is certainly a good book and ideal for anyone interested in this period of time.

Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill?

Agent Provocateur for Hitler or Churchill? written by David Tremain and published

by Pen & Sword Books - £25.00 - Hardback - Pages 304

There have been many remarkable women who served British Intelligence during the Second

World War. One whose dubious claim to have worked for them is a fascinating tale involving

three marriages – the first, to a spurious White Russian prince; the second to a

playboy-turned-criminal involved in a major jewellery robbery in the heart of London’s Mayfair

in the late 1930s. After the war, she became romantically involved with a well-known British

Fascist, but finally married another notorious criminal whom she had met earlier during the war.

The descriptions variously ascribed to her ranged from ‘remarkable’ and ‘quite ravishing’ to ‘…a woman whose loose living would make her an object of shame on any farmyard.

Until now, very little has been recorded about Stella Lonsdale’s life. She doesn’t even merit a mention in the two official histories of MI5, even though she managed to tie them up in knots for years. This book will explore the role this strange woman may or may not have played in working for British Intelligence, the French Deuxième Bureau, or the Abwehr – German military intelligence – during the Second World War, using her MI5 files as a primary source.

I should probably admit that I had never heard of Stella Lonsdale, but in a way, I can see why and why not. In a fascinating book that delves deep into the story and the circumstances involved, the information is a lot and very comprehensive. Hopefully, this isn’t spoiling it for anyone but this book clears her name of being any sort of spy for Nazi Germany. Although her lifestyle and friends might not have been to everyone’s taste, this book digs deep and does a lot of research to vindicate her and is very comprehensively written. I think this book could deter some readers because there was a lot of detail and information, but I pushed on through and in the end, it was a good read. Certainly one for those that love their spy game type reads.

The Great Miss Lydia Becker

The Great Miss Lydia Becker written by Joanna M Williams and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 328

Fifty years before women were enfranchised, a legal loophole allowed a thousand women to vote in the general election of 1868. This surprising event occurred due to the feisty and single-minded dedication of Lydia Becker, the acknowledged, though unofficial, leader of the women's suffrage movement in the later 19th century.

Brought up in a middle-class family as the eldest of fifteen children, she broke away from convention, remaining single and entering the sphere of men by engaging in politics. Although it was considered immoral for a woman to speak in public, Lydia addressed innumerable audiences, not only on women's votes, but also on the position of wives, female education and rights at work. She battled grittily to gain academic education for poor girls, and kept countless supporters all over Britain and beyond abreast of the many campaigns for women's rights through her publication, the Women's Suffrage Journal.

Steamrollering her way to Parliament as chief lobbyist for women, she influenced MPs in a way that no woman, and few men, had done before. In the 1860s the idea of women's suffrage was compared in the Commons to persuading dogs to dance; it was dismissed as ridiculous and unnatural. By the time of Lydia's death in 1890 there was an acceptance that the enfranchisement of women would soon happen. The torch was picked up by a woman she had inspired as a teenager, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Lydia's younger colleague on the London committee, Millicent Fawcett. And the rest is history.

I can honestly say that since reviewing books for Pen & Sword Books, I have learnt so much more about history and individuals and in particular women’s history and the roles of women throughout history and the importance they play. Having learnt a lot about history at university, I am learning so much from Pen & Sword books like this one about The Great Miss Lydia Becker. Lydia Becker who might have gone unnoticed had she not moved to Manchester was a staunch supporter of women’s rights and suffrage in the mid-1800s from employment, to equal rights, to living & working conditions, to voting eligibility for women. Lydia Becker and her like in the women’s suffrage movement were all strong motivated women who would stand their ground and demand their rights. What comes through in this book is how much women from the north have been undervalued, and yet they are some of the strongest and most determined women you could find. This is a really well-written book by the author Joanna Williams, I’ve enjoyed the whole book and the bibliography at the back is an excellent one I shall be following up on and reading further. A very good book indeed.

The Greatest Explorers in History

The Greatest Explorers in History written by Michelle Rosenberg and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208

This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it’s about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world’s imagination. It’s the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North-West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years.

The Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cock-pits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment.

Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in The Greatest Explorers in History were often denied respect, acknowledgement or recognition and they determined to break the ‘men's club’ mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.

Marco Polo:

“This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end, and at the narrowest point, it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat.”

It's unfortunate that more publicity or writing goes doesn’t go to renowned explorers because when you read some of the stories and adventures these men and women attempt is truly staggering. In a number of cases, you could say that what some of these people try to attempt is like certain death, so there has to be a little admiration that these people attempt these feats. This book is divided into separate chapters for each explorer, and what is actually a nice thing is that the women and men are split up, I personally think this helps put both on a par with each other rather than the women being overshadowed. I also liked the fact that the ‘space’ explorers and ‘South Pole’ explorers were put into separate sections too. 

It is surprising how many of these explorers are easily recognisable such as Amelia Earhart, Ernest Shackleton, Meriwether Lewis, David Livingstone, Nellie Bly, Marco Polo & Neil Armstrong to name just a few. It was also nice to see such an array of names going back a couple of thousand years right up to the 20th century. A subject that gets little converge, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was a really good read, with some examples for further reading. A book I would recommend to others.