Daughters of Time

About this book

This anthology of short stories for children aims to shine a new spotlight on some extraordinary women from history, acknowledging that the stories of girls and women are often overlooked. Published to coincide with International Women's Day, the stories in this collection set out to teach young readers about the achievements of great women including Boudica, Aphra Behn, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Wollestonecraft and Mary Seacole. 

Edited by children's author Mary Hoffman, the stories in this collection are all written by members of 'The History Girls', a group of women writers of historical fiction who cover every period from the Stone Age to World War II in their writing, including the likes of Adele Geras, Celia Rees and Catherine Johnson. As befits such a varied group, the stories are wide-ranging, but the most successful are perhaps those that provide an everyday, personal perspective on a figure from history - such as Celia Rees's moving story about a girl's brief encounter with sufragette Emily Davison on the day of her death, or Katherine Langrish's lightly-told story about an unhappy young maid in the household of Lady Julian of Norwich.

Each story comes accompanied with some historical facts and a brief note from the author about why they chose their particular character, as well as a list of more female figures from history to find out about, making this an ideal book for classroom use.

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