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Our #IWD2018 Books

It’s International Women’s Day tomorrow! Celebrate your favourite inspirational women and delve into some excellent reads celebrating all things female…

Deeds Not Words by Helen Pankhurst

Despite huge progress since the suffragette campaigns and wave after wave of feminism, women are still fighting for equality. Why, at the present rate will we have to wait in Britain until 2069 for the gender pay gap to disappear? Why, in 2015, did 11% of women lose their jobs due to pregnancy discrimination? Why, globally, has 1 in 3 women experienced physical or sexual violence?

In 2018, on the centenary of one of the greatest steps forward for women – the Fourth Reform Act, which saw propertied women over 30 gain the vote for the first time – suffragette descendant and campaigner Helen Pankhurst charts how the lives of women in the UK have changed over the last 100 years. She celebrates landmark successes, little-known victories, where progress has stalled or reversed, looking at politics, money, identity, violence, culture and social norms. The voices of both pioneers and ordinary women – in all their diversity – are woven into the analysis which ends with suggestions about how to better understand and strengthen feminist campaigning and with aims for the future.

Combining historical insight with inspiring argument, Deeds not Words reveals how far women have come since the suffragettes, how far we still have to go, and how we might get there. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to explore one of the most central and pressing conversations of our time.

She by Harriet Hall

Calling all women! SHE: A CELEBRATION OF RENEGADE WOMEN by Stylist‘s Harriet Hall is the must-have book for women everywhere. Perfect for fans of Caitlin Moran, Lena Dunham and Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls

SHE is a love letter to all the women who have thrown out the rulebook and threatened the status quo. It’s a toast to the brave, bold and brilliant women who make us proud to be ladies.

From fashion icon Coco Chanel to Queen Cleopatra, from literary legend Jane Austen to trailblazer Michelle Obama and from kick-ass activist Malala Yousafzai to the one-and-only Beyoncé, SHE honours 100 truly renegade women, from history through to present day.
Gorgeously curated and expertly written by Stylist journalist Harriet Hall, and filled with stunning black and white illustrations by Alice Skinner, SHE is a thing of beauty to be worshipped, just like the women that make up its contents.

This statement, timely book is the perfect gift for the renegade women in your life who inspire and amaze you or, for YOU, to simply make you proud of being a woman.

Almost Love by Louise O’Neill

Louise O’Neill is the feminist powerhouse and outspoken voice for change whose novels Only Ever Yours and Asking for It helped to start important conversations about body image and consent. This unforgettable new novel from Louise tells of how dangerous, painful and addictive love can be.

When Sarah falls for Matthew, she falls hard.

So it doesn’t matter that he’s twenty years older. That he sees her only in secret. That, slowly but surely, she’s sacrificing everything else in her life to be with him.

Sarah’s friends are worried. Her father can’t understand how she could allow herself to be  used like this. And she’s on the verge of losing her job.

But Sarah can’t help it. She is addicted to being desired by Matthew.

And love is supposed to hurt.

Isn’t it?

‘A bold, uncompromising depiction of obsessive love’   MARIAN KEYES

‘O’Neill is a vital and necessary presence in contemporary literature and we are lucky to have her’  SARAH PERRY

‘A real, raw story . . . Louise O’Neill will once again connect to the secret, intimate places of readers’ minds and lives’    CECELIA AHERN

The F Word by Lily Pebbles

If there’s one piece of invaluable advice for women and girls of all ages, it is that there is nothing more important than creating and maintaining strong, positive and happy friendships with other women.

In a culture that largely pits women against each other, I want to celebrate female friendships… all strings attached!
If my 1998 diary is anything to go by, female friendships are incredibly complex and emotional but they’re the mini love stories that make us who we are. For many women, friends are our partners in crime through life; they are the ones who move us into new homes, out of bad relationships, through births and illnesses. In The F Word I’ve set out to explore and celebrate the essence of female friendship at different life stages and in its many wild and wonderful forms

Eat, Drink, Run. by Bryony Gordon

One woman who has done extraordinary things – Bryony Gordon. Telegraph journalist and mental health campaigner, she took the world by storm with her hilarious and brave memoir Mad Girl. Putting health on the map, she has become widely recognised as a spokesperson for mental health and is at the forefront of campaigns led by major organizations such as Mind, Calm and Heads Together. She has also interviewed influencers such as Stephen Fry, Prince Harry and Fearne Cotton. In her new book out next month, we join Bryony as she trains for the London Marathon, showing us that extraordinary things can happen, no matter what life throws at us, if we’re just willing to keep going.

100 Nasty Women of History by Hannah Jewell

These are the women who were deemed too nasty for their times.

When you learn about (the very few) women in history, it’s hard not to wonder: why do they seem so prim and proper? The truth is, (mostly male) historians keep glossing over the real details, or leaving out the women who threatened their idea of what a woman should be like. Fake news!

But fret not. Former Buzzfeed senior writer and Washington Post pop culture host Hannah Jewell has got you covered. In 100 Nasty Women of History, Hannah will spill the tea on incredible women such as Ching Shih, a swashbuckling pirate known as ‘The Terror of South China’;

So if you think that Nasty Women are a new thing, think again. They’ve always been around – you just haven’t always heard of them. It’s time to get learning. These are the 100 Nasty Women of History who gave zero f*cks whatsoever. These are the 100 Nasty Women of History whom everyone needs to know about, right now.

‘A fun, hilarious read that will make a fantastic addition to your feminist library and historical knowledge’ ANN SHEN, author of Bad Girls Throughout History

If you liked this then why not take a look at our favourite fictional women here