The Virago Book of Women and the Great War

Joyce Marlow presents a fascinating and varied collection of women's writing on the Great War drawn from diaries, newspapers, letters and memoirs from across Europe and the States. Starting with material from 1914, she outlines the pre-war campaigns for suffrage and then the demand from women eager to be counted amongst those in action. Contemporary accounts and reports describe their experience on the field and reactions to women in completely new areas, such as surgery as well as on the home front. The words of women in the UK, America, France and Germany display a side to the war rarely seen. Familiar voices such as those of Vera Brittain, Millicent Fawcett, May Sinclair, Alexandra Kollontai, the Pankhurst family and Beatrice Webb, as well as the unknown, make this anthology a truly indispensable guide to the female experience of a war after which women's lives would never be the same.

“What emerges most strongly, and much more clearly than ever before from this wonderfully lively and engaging anthology is the extraordinary diversity of the occupations adopted by women-- Mark Bostridge, TLS”

Fascinating ... these first-person female memories are social history at its most compelling - SCOTSMAN

What emerges most strongly, and much more clearly than ever before from this wonderfully lively and engaging anthology is the extraordinary diversity of the occupations adopted by women - Mark Bostridge, TLS

A true labour of love - Kate Figes, WOMAN'S JOURNAL

An interesting and well-chosen selection of contemporary accounts. - LITERARY REVIEW

Joyce Marlow's fascination with the Great War was fostered by her father who had served as a self-styled 'lance-private' of the Manchester Regiment. Her interest in the female experience of the same war was sparked when she read Vera Brittain's TESTAMENT OF YOUTH. She is from Manchester originally.

Joyce Marlow presents a fascinating and varied collection of women's writing on the Great War drawn from diaries, newspapers, letters and memoirs from across Europe and the States. Starting with material from 1914, she outlines the pre-war campaigns for suffrage and then the demand from women eager to be counted amongst those in action. Contemporary accounts and reports describe their experience on the field and reactions to women in completely new areas, such as surgery as well as on the home front. The words of women in the UK, America, France and Germany display a side to the war rarely seen. Familiar voices such as those of Vera Brittain, Millicent Fawcett, May Sinclair, Alexandra Kollontai, the Pankhurst family and Beatrice Webb, as well as the unknown, make this anthology a truly indispensable guide to the female experience of a war after which women's lives would never be the same.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.