STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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Uncontrollable Women
LYNNE WALSH says a powerful book by Nan Sloane is a keeper that will reward reading and rereading
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers & Revolutionaries.
by Nan Sloane
IB Tauris £17.46
THE publishing world seems to have suddenly discovered “invisible women” and resolved to champion trailblazers to whom our society owes a long overdue debt.
The concept of “herstory” has been around for a while, coined by some feminist researchers and authors criticising male domination in “his story.” It’s a wry joke, of course; writers do understand the neologism. But the challenge is well founded. Where have these wonderful women been, all our lives?
Nan Sloane has done a grand job here. Producing non-fiction, which also moves along with a graceful narrative arc, is tricky enough. Unearthing these neglected lives demands meticulous research. Writing a page-turner calls for a storyteller’s skill.
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With most of recorded history dominated by the voices of men, LYNNE WALSH encourages sisters to read the memoirs of women – and to write their own too