Reviews

I picked this up in a bookshop because I occasionally listen to Women's Hour on Radio 4 and I recognised Jenni Murray's name. It is a nice little collection of biographies, arranged in chronological order from Boudicca to Nicola Sturgeon, giving a short overview of each woman's life. Jenni Murray is open about the fact that the women chosen have a personal meaning to her, although typical for a BBC presenter she tries to be unbiased - refusing, for example, to take a side in the Mary Seacole / Florence Nightingale debate, despite having picked Seacole to feature in the book.

I didn't expect in-depth histories of each woman as there are 21 fitted into a book less than 300 pages long, so I wasn't too disappointed that they are little more than Wikipedia entries. It was a good way to refamiliarise myself with women like Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who I have admired for a while, and to find out about women like Fanny Burney and Constance Markievicz, whom I had never heard of before.
Murray also adds anecdotes of her own about interviewing Margaret Thatcher and how her dress sense was changed thanks to Mary Quant.

All in all, it's not a Great Feminist Text that's going to change the world, but a nice reminder that modern-day feminists stand on the shoulders of giants.

anneofgreenplaces's review against another edition

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4.0

Well told series of spotlights on some interesting and compelling women, especially having lived in England. A good number I hadn't heard of before. Very feminist; the title should really be A History of Women's Rights and Status in Britain in 21 Women, since that's how the bios were chosen and framed.