FREEDOM'S CAUSE: LIVES OF THE SUFFRAGETTES

"When Christabel Pankhurst went to prison in 1905 for shouting suffrage slogans and spitting at a policeman - losing her skirt in the melee that ensued - she burst the stays of her Victorian upbringing." "Over the next decade countless young women would break free of the constraints under which their mothers had laboured. They were prepared to give up their homes, their livelihoods, even life itself, for their cause. But they gained something even more precious - the joy of comradeship and the delicious freedom of a life outside the narrow confines of respectability." "The characters in this book form a cross-section of the many thousands whose lives were touched by this extraordinary, vibrant movement. Throughout the rigours of imprisonment and force feeding, their sheer energy, humour and joie de vivre never ceased to shine through." "By bringing to life a dozen women - and men - who were touched by the suffragette movement, this book seeks to discover what they really achieved. Was it the simple fact of votes for women? Or was it something much more fundamental - a sense that women had a key role to play, not just in politics but throughout the whole fabric of society?"--BOOK JACKET.