Description

---

FEATURED ON BBC RADIO 4 'START THE WEEK'.

Set against the colourful background of the entire campaign for women to win the vote, Hearts and Minds tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the suffragists' march on London.

1913: the last long summer before the war. The country is gripped by suffragette fever. These impassioned crusaders have their admirers; some agree with their aims if not their forceful methods, while others are aghast at the thought of giving any female a vote.

Meanwhile, hundreds of women are stepping out on to the streets of Britain. They are the suffragists: non-militant campaigners for the vote, on an astonishing six-week protest march they call the Great Pilgrimage. Rich and poor, young and old, they defy convention, risking jobs, family relationships and even their lives to persuade the country to listen to them.

This is a story of ordinary people effecting extraordinary change. By turns dangerous, exhausting and exhilarating, the Great Pilgrimage transformed the personal and political lives of women in Britain for ever. Jane Robinson has drawn from diaries, letters and unpublished accounts to tell the inside story of the march, against the colourful background of the entire suffrage campaign.

Fresh and original, full of vivid detail and moments of high drama, Hearts and Minds is both funny and incredibly moving, important and wonderfully entertaining.

About the Author

---

Jane Robinson is also the author of Bluestockings: the Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education. She went to Oxford University to study English Language and Literature at Somerville College. She has worked in the antiquarian book trade and as an archivist and is now a full-time writer and lecturer, specializing in social history through women's eyes. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, member of the Society of Authors, and founder member of Writers in Oxford.

Praise For…

---

"

A story of huge courage and, most of all, immense female camaraderie...meticulously researched...
a fascinating and inspiring read

" - Hannah Beckman - Sunday Express

"Inspiring and moving" - - Observer

"An excellent account of the suffragist movement." - Lucy Lethbridge - Financial Times

"BOOK OF THE WEEK: The war between the sisters: Smashed windows, lobbed bombs, a fascinating book casts new light on the bitter rivalry between the women who fought for the vote." - Ysenda Maxtone Graham - Daily Mail

"

*****Five Stars!
Hearts and Minds brings the voices of the suffragists to life in a compelling, entertaining and poignant collection of accounts. It’s a history book that should be read by all as we celebrate the centenary of the vote and continue the fight for equality.

Meticulously researched yet never dull, it breathes life into a little-known corner of history

" - - Stylist

"An eye-opening story, immaculately researched and full of fascinating detail." - - CHOICE magazine

"Hearts and Minds, with its coverage of both suffragist and suffragette, is a lively, informative book that many will enjoy reading." - June Purvis - BBC History Magazine

"A fine and sometimes moving account of the struggle for suffrage." - Anthony Quinn - Mail on Sunday

"This entertaining and very human account of the Suffragettes' politically charged summer of 1913 is mandatory reading." - - The Reading Room, Emerald Street

"Hearts and Minds by Jane Robinson is a brilliant, witty and moving account of women’s battle to win the vote. There were two key movements: the Suffragettes, prepared to suffer for their cause, including forced feeding and imprisonment, and the Suffragists, devoted to Constitutional action and unwilling to use violence. The book tells the story, still little unknown, of the successful crusade of the Suffragists who walked to London from all over England and from all sections of society. That story is the account of the ‘Great Pilgrimage’ of 1913, a key element in the finally successful of the cause of women’s suffrage." - Shirley Williams, the Rt Hon the Baroness Williams of Crosby -