My Books

Launch event for “Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War”


I have written on various subjects: social history, politics, current affairs, health and human rights but tend to focus on women’s social history where possible. My books include a world history of women from earliest times to the present day; biographies of Anne Frank and Eleanor Aquitaine and accounts of women’s experiences during the two world wars. Wherever possible I try to include first-hand accounts in my writing, information shared with me by the people who actually took part in events I am writing about.

As well as books on women’s history, I co-authored a successful book on running for women and produced what was then a ground-breaking book on women’s health, Women’s Body: An Owner’s Manual and have recently researched into and written about women’s fight for the vote in Hastings and St Leonards, which I produced for the centenary of (some) British women achieving the right to vote.

I have written for various publishers, including Pen & Sword, Dorling Kindersley, Franklin Watts, Marshall Editions, Heinemann, and Diagram Visual Information.

My most recent books include Turbulent Spinsters, which describes women’s fight for the vote in Hastings and St Leonards — a very stirring story; Women Wartime Spies, an exploration of women’s experiences as spies or secret agents during the two world wars; Sussex Women, which includes lively biographies of 30 good, great and not-so-great women linked to Sussex; Conscientious Objectors of the First World War and Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War, each of which tells the inspirational stories of those men — and women — who refused to kill.  

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