This dramatic social history follows the struggle for women's rights in England from the Industrial Revolution to the Suffragist victory after WWI.The 100 years from 1819-1919 saw remarkable change for women in England. From the early nineteenth century, when women were not even considered 'persons' under the law, they achieved full legal rights and status. The doors of education and employment were thrown open to them, and by 1919, they won universal suffrage....

Cambridge is one of the most famous universities in the world and its library is one of only five copyright libraries in the UK. At the start of the twentieth century it was a privileged life for some, but many in Cambridge knew that war was becoming truly inevitable. What the proverbial gown feared communicated itself to the surrounding town. Terrible rumours were rife, that the Germans would burn the university library and raise Kings College chapel to the ground, before firing shells al...

The war touched almost every aspect of life on the Home Front, and those who were left behind suffered terribly. This book meticulously explores the problems, hardships and grief faced by Manchesters people and takes a detailed look the unfortunate areas that were hit the hardest.Throughout Britain, industry declined and wages suffered; prices of food and fuel rose sharply; essential foodstuffs and coal were hoarded for the black market; soldiers families doubled up with others, which caus...

A new book on Glossop during World War I focuses on the economic and social conditions, problems and hardships of those left at home in England played out against a background of military action on the Western Front, in Turkey, Egypt and Palestine. It chronicles the difficulties, hardships and restrictions of daily life for civilians; the morale of the town year by year as the War dragged on; the growing lists of casualties and the stoical determination of the townsfolk to contribute as mu...

‘Women are not persons.’ That was the ruling of the Court of Appeal when Gwynneth Bebb challenged the Law Society to allow her to take exams and become a solicitor. The case was dismissed because only ‘persons’ (i.e. males) could become members of the Law Society and it proved the depth of misogyny within the Establishment at that time.'Suffrage and Struggle in Manchester’ celebrates the struggle for the recognition of female rights, the centenary of female suffrage and the 90th an...

English schoolchildren are taught that Sir Richard Arkwright 'invented the water-frame and was the father of the Industrial Revolution and the factory system.' That is simply not true. The water-powered spinning frame and the 'modern factory system' were pioneered in Italy over 300 years before Richard Arkwright was born. This book tells the story of how the Industrial Revolution in textile manufacture really began. Not in England with Richard Arkwright and the English cotton industry, but...

Thirty-two true crime stories from the history of the English town, from the sixteenth century to the early twentiethcentury.Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton takes the reader on a sinister journey through centuries of local crime, meeting villains of all sorts along the way. There is no shortage of harrowing incidents of evil to recount from the town's early industrial beginnings to its murderous heyday in the nineteenth century. Glynis Cooper's f...

The twin fascinations of death and villainy will always hold us in their grim but thrilling grip. In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Guernsey the chill is brought close to home as each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in cases of murder, deceit and pure malice. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted here, bringing to life the sinister history of Guernsey from the Middle Ages ...

A new book on Ashton-under-Lyne during World War I is being published as part of a series on Towns and Cities in the Great War to commemorate the centenary of the beginning of the War. It focuses on the economic and social conditions, problems and hardships of those left at home in England played out against a background of military action on the Western Front, in Turkey, Egypt and Palestine. Ashton was both a garrison town and a mill town. There were three Battalions based locally and ove...

Few could believe that within twenty years of the war to end all wars being won the world was once again at war. Veterans of the Great War feared going through the same thing again and, even worse, many knew that this time their children would also be involved in the fighting. What had all the sacrifice been about?Cambridgeshire, the city of Cambridge and the University of Cambridge were badly hit by the Great War with many lives lost, families ripped apart and a way of life that h...

The Great War came as a shock to the citizens of Bury St Edmunds, a rural Suffolk town. One day they were celebrating a beautiful, hot August bank holiday at a large well-attended country fte; the next they were plunged into the deadliest war in history. Men from the Suffolk Regiment, who were based in the towns barracks, marched off to war and fought valiantly in Flanders, France and Gallipoli. Folk left at home devoted their time and energy to supporting the troops, the war effort and th...

In a superb companion volume to her best-selling book Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Guernsey, Glynis Cooper turns her attention to the dark side of the past in Jersey. And there is no shortage of shocking stories to tell—crimes of passion and despair, cases of murder, deceit and pure malice, opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of wickedness that are as disturbing today as they were in their own time. For this journey into a neglected area in Jersey's history she has s...