If you loved the film 'Suffagettes' you will love this book! ‘The Sweetest Empire’ is a quote from an unbelievably patronising (to women) Victorian poem, which you can find in full at the beginning of the book. The story follows the lives of six generations of women and their determination to achieve independence in a masculine dominated society. Based on actual events and beginning with Mary, a young Victorian heiress,you will be heartened and fascinated by their courage and tenacity, and shocked by the mental and physical brutality many of the them endured at the hands of police, politicians and society in general. Much of this treatment (especially of the suffragettes) is still largely unrecognised, from the truth about force-feeding to the sexual abuse,. The novel also portrays the experiences of a nurse on the front line in WW1, and an actress in Hollywood under the infamous studio system. It also explores the horror and terror of an unmarried girl finding herself pregnant in pre WW2 Britain, and, in the final episode, a woman trying to pursue a career and marriage and motherhood in the fifties.
The novel was originally inspired by the life of the author’s grandmother, a suffragette. Covering nearly 100 years, it traces the fight for women’s rights from Victorian times up to the 1960’s. Sally has followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and been a campaigner for female equality all her life. She says that now her main aim is to get all British women to use the vote that was so hard won, and also to see them smash that glass ceiling forever!
The novel was originally inspired by the life of the author’s grandmother, a suffragette. Covering nearly 100 years, it traces the fight for women’s rights from Victorian times up to the 1960’s. Sally has followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and been a campaigner for female equality all her life. She says that now her main aim is to get all British women to use the vote that was so hard won, and also to see them smash that glass ceiling forever!
