To win a copy of Diane Atkinson's Rise Up Women, answer the following question:
'In the last 100 years, which woman in public life (i.e. not your mum!) has inspired you the most and why?'
Competition closes on 14th February.
We're sorry but the competition is only open to UK residents.
5 comments:
Emily Wilding Davison has been an inspiration since I first read about her in a history lesson aged 11 yrs. The text book's very casual account of how she 'martyred herself' in front of the king's horse, disrupting the race, greatly annoyed me in its callous, dismissive tone of such a protest action (reinforced further by the news film commentary from that day); & since then I have spent decades reading further about her motivations & the cause that would prompt such actions from many women.
Vera Brittain. Her accounts of her war experience, her politics and her strive for peace plus her deep friendship with Winifred Holtby have carried me through life right from when I first read Testament of Youth when I was in my twenties.
This is quite difficult as it is asking about who has inspired you rather than who you think was the most influential woman. The suffragettes and suffragists, of course, have to be there but if I try to think back to whose story really inspired me when I was young then the first name that comes to mind is Amy Johnson. No, I've never learnt to fly a plane but her story did make me think I could do all sorts of things not usually done by women.
I see that our Mums are excluded from this competition - so I'm going to nominate someone in public life who inspired me - hugely…my Mother in law!
Born into the aristocratic Dillon family, Iris Edrica Marsden (later Cawley) was the daughter of Edward Marsden - sometime of the Burmese Forestery Commission, and on his return to England, a Master at Eton College, where she grew up, a 'terrible twin' (and next door neighbour to Humphrey Lyttleton!).
At over 6 feet and with 'a voice that carried across three counties', she scared the bejabers out of me, but also inspired me deeply. One of six brothers and sisters who were all in either MI5 or 6 during WWII, in her early 20's, she was operating in France after D-Day, escorting enemy collaborators back to the UK. Within ten years of the end of the war she was hosting German choirs visiting the UK - still a very contentious thing to do with the latent hostility in the 'true-blue part of the country in which she lived. But she felt it was The Right Thing, so didn't hesitate to irritate her local community by doing so.
She continued this path of righteous belligerence for the rest of her life, becoming a Liberal councillor and thus a traitor to the expectations of all others on the True-Blue council. After my brother in Law was born with Down's Syndrome she turned her attention to thwarting those who suggested he be 'just put away and forgotten', becoming a pestiferous but highly successful fundraiser (along with Sir Nicholas Winton, whose other contributions to humanity were - at that time - unreported…) for monies with which one of the first 'Independent Living' houses for special needs clients was built *in the community*.
Mother in Law liked being in the forefront of 'The Awkward Brigade' above almost everything else - but as a result of her awkwardness, many ordinary people reaped the benefit for decades afterwards. She was difficult to love, but I respected her deeply.
She was not famous, but she was most certainly inspiring. I have enjoyed introducing her to you!
Dear Roz, Can you let us have your email address so that I can organise your prize? Email me at maryhoffman@maryhoffman.co.uk
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