After spending ten years researching and writing about 750 overlooked females in ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’ trilogy, author Jane Duffus has turned her attention to Bath.
Following hot on the heels of her popular Bristol series, Jane’s new book ‘The Women Who Built Bath’ is published on September 9 and celebrates 200 unsung historical sheroes from our city.
Jane first began collecting stories of amazing but unfairly overlooked women 15 years ago. Before then, in blissful ignorance, she had not realised this was a job that needed doing quite so desperately as it does.
Yes, we know Jane Austen has a link to this beautiful city and so does Mary Shelley, but what about, say, social reformer Marianne Fox, or rugby-loving architect Molly Gerrard, or sister suffragists Katharina and Sara Wrattislaw, or health visitor Dora Caws, or religious leader Selina Hastings or… well, you get the idea.
Jane says: “It frustrates me that we are so often only ever told the men’s history of anywhere, even though it is never explicitly labelled as such. This is partly why I call this book, tongue in cheek, ‘The Women Who Built Bath’: because nobody would have the audacity to call a book ‘The Men Who Built Bath’.”
Of course, most of the women in her book are not literal builders, they are metaphorical builders: women who rolled up their sleeves and got stuff done, whether that’s Roman goddess Minerva Sulis or Edwardian activist Madame Sarah Grand, both of whom are depicted on the cover.
Jane says that Sarah Grand was the perfect woman to showcase on the book’s cover because of everything Sarah achieved, from Victorian feminism to mayoral respectability and literary prowess: “Sarah was such a popular Mayoress in Bath that she was even asked to stand as Mayor but she declined. It was once reported that Sarah had shaken so many hands that she sustained an injury to her right hand and was forced to rest it for a while.”
‘The Women Who Built Bath’ will be launched on Wednesday September 9 with an event at The Townhouse, on Old Bond Street in the city centre, to which all are invited. Jane will be in conversation with BBC presenter Laura Rawlings, and there will be the chance to buy a copy of the new book and, of course, get it signed. Tickets cost £5 which is redeemable against a purchase of the book on the night: https://wegottickets.com/f/23120
Or, if you can’t make the event but still want to snap up a copy, you can buy signed copies of ‘The Women Who Built Bath’ direct from Jane’s website: www.janeduffus.com/shop
