Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather

When Mrs Pankhurst stormed the House of Commons with her militant suffragettes in 1908, she wore on her hat a voluptuous purple feather. Twelve years earlier, a very different women's campaign captured the public imagination. Its aim was to stamp out the fashion for feathers in hats. Leading the fight was Etta Lemon. She was anti-fashion, anti-feminist– and anti-suffrage. Britain’s biggest conservation charity, the RSPB, was born through the determined efforts of a handful of women led by Mrs Lemon. Boase explores these rival, overlapping campaigns to show a society in transformation. -- adapted from jacket.