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Week beginning 29 March 2023

Beverley Adams Ada Lovelace The World’s First Computer Programmer Pen & Sword History 2023. This is the second of Beverly Adams’ biographies that I have read. Once again I am impressed with the way in which Adams has assembled her material to advance an enlightening and plausible account of a woman for whom there isContinue reading “Week beginning 29 March 2023”

Week beginning 22 March 2023

Carolyn Purnell Blue Jeans Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Press, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review. Blue Jeans is another wonderful addition to the Object Lessons series. Carolyn Purnell brings the reader into a world that comprises the horrors of indigo production for the beloved blue jeans, the politicalContinue reading “Week beginning 22 March 2023”

Week beginning 15 March 2023

This week I review Before Mrs Beeton Elizabeth Raffald by Neil Buttery. Neil Buttery, Before Mrs Beeton Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper, Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History 2023. Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review. Before Mrs Beeton Elizabeth Raffald is another of PenContinue reading “Week beginning 15 March 2023”

Week beginning 8 March 2023

International Women’s Day International Women’s Day March 8 is an appropriate time to review How to Think Like a Woman Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind, a book that recognises the way in which her own and her subjects’ domestic lives impacted on acceptance of their roleContinue reading “Week beginning 8 March 2023”

Week beginning March 1, 2023

This week I review a heartbreaking novel by Liz Nugent – an author I have not previously read. I also alert readers to the two-part novel by Rob Wills that I shall review at a later date. Liz Nugent Strange Sally Diamond Penguin General UK – Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Sandycove,Continue reading “Week beginning March 1, 2023”

Week beginning March 2023

Tracey Enerson Wood The President’s Wife Sourcebooks Landmark, 2023. Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected copy for review. The President’s Wife is an apt title, encompassing as it does the part of Edith Galt’s life where she becomes instead, Edith Wilson, First lady. Galt is her married name – that of herContinue reading “Week beginning March 2023”

Week beginning

Kevin Landis One Public New York’s Public Theater in the Era of Oskar Eustis Bloomsbury Academic, Methuen Drama 2022. Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review. Land Acknowledgement We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand is the original homeland of the Lenape people. Kevin Landis’ historyContinue reading “Week beginning”

Week beginning 8 February 2023

Michele Moody-Adams Making Space for Justice Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope Columbia University Press, 2022. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review. This book is so enlightening, beginning with its title, through its chapter headings to the clear way in which Michele Moody-Adams explains the beginnings of herContinue reading “Week beginning 8 February 2023”

Week beginning 1 February 2023

The book I review this week is, in my opinion, somewhat of a throwback to a different age. Of course, the attitudes of the time were of a different age, but their perpetuation in the 2020s is an interesting phenomenon. To be fair, the title is modern – no ‘air hostesses’ here! Despite this proviso,Continue reading “Week beginning 1 February 2023”

Week beginning 25 January 2023

Michelle McSweeney OK Bloomsbury Academic, January 2023. Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review. Object Lessons is a fun series – and more. Items, and in this case a word, gain a different dimension under the writers who lead us into the history, the political ramifications, and social dimensions ofContinue reading “Week beginning 25 January 2023”