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  • A History of Britain in 21 Women

  • By: Jenni Murray
  • Narrated by: Jenni Murray
  • Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,445 ratings)
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A History of Britain in 21 Women

By: Jenni Murray
Narrated by: Jenni Murray
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Summary

Britain has been defined by its conflicts, its conquests, its men and its monarchs. To say that it's high time it was defined by its women is a severe understatement. Jenni Murray draws together the lives of 21 women to shed light upon a variety of social, political, religious and cultural aspects of British history.

In lively prose Murray reinvigorates the stories behind the names we all know and reveals the fascinating tales behind those less familiar. From famous queens to forgotten visionaries and from great artists to our most influential political actors, A History of Britain in 21 Women is a veritable feast of history.

A History of Britain in 21 Women profiles Boadicea, Queen Elizabeth I, Aphra Behn, Caroline Herschel, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Mary Somerville, Mary Seacole, Ada Lovelace, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ethel Smyth, Constance Markievicz, Gwen John, Nancy Astor, Barbara Castle, Margaret Thatcher, Mary Quant and Nicola Sturgeon.

©2016 Jenni Murray (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"I can't think of any more seductive way of learning about the past than meeting its principals as if they were friends in a room. That's the gift that Jenni Murray gives us." (Gloria Steinem)
"Murray chooses 21 women who changed the world, and tells their remarkable stories with her own extraordinary wit, passion and piercing insight. She is the perfect guide." (Helen Castor)

What listeners say about A History of Britain in 21 Women

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting women, somewhat irritating narration

If you could sum up A History of Britain in 21 Women in three words, what would they be?

Engaging, necessary, partial

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

In general I prefer it when audiobooks are narrated by their authors, and Jenni Murray is such a well-known voice that it would have seemed odd to have listened to her words read by someone else, but I became increasingly irritated with her delivery as the book went on. She has a trick of pausing at odd places in a sentence, presumably acquired to sound more natural when reading aloud, which made for an odd sensation as a listener and which in several places even confused the meaning of a sentence.

The thing I really disliked about the narration was the way she suddenly started Doing Accents in the chapter about Nancy Astor, a trend which continued in the chapters on Barbara Castle and Nicola Sturgeon. It's not that the accents were poorly delivered, although they were a little shaky in places, it's that they were arbitrary and generic, not actually sounding like the people they represent. Mary Seacole didn't get a Jamaican accent, so why should other non-RP women be represented with generic regional accents? I was very interested in all three of these women, so I wanted to hear their stories, but because of the accents I found myself longing for their chapters to end. For this reason, if this sort of thing annoys you, I recommend buying the Kindle book with Whispersync so you can read those chapters the old-fashioned way instead of listening to the impersonations.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I was keen to hear about all the women, whose stories are told in a lively and engaging way, and each chapter is a good length to provide an introduction to the subject before moving on to the next.

Any additional comments?

This book is part of the current redressing of the gender balance in discussing important historical figures, and deals with subjects in a variety of fields. Jenni Murray presents the information in an interesting, insightful and engaging way. She has clearly done a lot of research into her subjects and has personally chosen them to represent the contribution of extraordinary women to the construction of the Britain we know today. She relates both key events and 'human interest' anecdotes in a way that makes the subjects come to life, and where her subjects overlap she mentions this, which increases the anticipation for more information about the friend or colleague of the women in the current chapter.

She has certain biases which are especially clear in the later chapters, leading to the Afterword in which she caricatures all female non-voters as if they 'can't be bothered to use the right women suffered for' (as if anyone should just vote for a candidate - any candidate - even if they don't support that person's policies) and deals with things like the gender pay gap in a very simplistic way. In my view she doesn't treat Margaret Thatcher as impartially as she does the women who lived longer ago, and doesn't talk about the effects of Thatcher's long final illness in the way she treats the subjects of other chapters.

Those criticisms aside, I am very glad I bought this book. I'll definitely 'read' it again, though possibly not from beginning to end, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in hearing about people they probably haven't thought about much, or maybe even heard of.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable and interesting

Any additional comments?

Fascinating insights. This audible book was right down my alley as I enjoy hearing the biographies of famous people. For me this is a infinitely more interesting listening than Matthew Paris's Great Lives on Radio 4. I have now just purchased from Amazon Kindle the Complete Novels of Fanny Burney after listening about her and how Jane Austen used to be a fan of hers.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but not enough

I enjoyed learning about all these wonderful women in British history however I was disappointed that there was little mention of how they have changed life for the average woman. It could be improved by having some more information about why what these women did was remarkable in the context of history and their influence on generations to come. It was however insightful and enjoyable to learn about the lives of so many influential and fascinating women so often forgotten from the history books.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting, well written, and very well read

I got this book on a whim as I almost always read and listen to fiction. I loved it. Murray reads well and she obviously cares deeply about the women she discusses in this book. I would recommend this book to men and women.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Book

I enjoyed this book. I gave performance 5 stars because I do enjoy when authors read their own works and I liked Jenni's reading style and intonation.

I had to admit I wasn't always 100% engaged, some parts grabbed my attention more than others, which is why I gave four stars overall. But I would definitely recommend it.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding narration and content

An amazing choice of women who made Britain. Makes me proud to be a woman. Inspires me to be strong, determined and never to accept misogyny and inequality. I particularly liked the second to last chapter.
Thank you Jenny Murray-,We love you xx

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Really interesting listen.

A great selection from a personal perspective. A great introduction to British feminist thought. Really well and passionately read by the author.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great book let down a little by the narration

This book was excellent and her choice of subjects was varied and very informative. I loved in particular the sections on Boadicea, Mary Somerville and the various women who brought about democratic equality.

Narrating the book herself must have been an obvious choice given her profession but I was shocked at the number of really bad mispronunciations. This was particularly evident in the sections dealing with Scotland and Ireland.

Speaking of Scotland, within the first few words of the section on Nicola Sturgeon the editor should have said, "Stop the dodgy Scottish accent now!" She made Nicola Sturgeon should like a reject from Miss Jean Brodie.

Which, in the end, goes to show just how good the book is as, despite the awful accents, bad pronounciation of place names and the inclusion of Countess Markovitz (whose party set Women's rights in Ireland back by a couple of generations!) it was still well written, very informative and challenging at the very end.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

Excellent summary of the life and work of 21 women who shaped Britain and beyond. Ends with a timely reminder that, although so much has been achieved in terms of gender equality, there is still work to be done, and we all have a role in building on the progress made.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Utter tripe. Racist, misogynistic, illogical tripe

So bad

I really wanted to like this book because it is long past time that something like this was written, but it was just sooooooo bad.

It was misogynistic:
The accounts of the *women's* lives had a massive focus on *men*. I first noticed that in the Caroline Herschel section - it went on and on and on about how she assisted her brother, then her own work got a passing mention. I was honestly shocked at that. Was not expecting erasure of women's work and achievements in an avowedly feminist book.

It was illogical:
Citing as evidence of her claim that Ada Lovelace didn't think AI is possible, Murray quoted Lovelace saying that the Difference Engine wasn't capable of AI....
This logic fail being in relation to Ada Lovelace makes it worse imo

It was racist:
The section on Mary Seacoe was so awful and bigoted that I had to stop the book and DNF. Appalling racism, stated so baldly. I find it outrageous that such a naked display of prejudice has been published. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.

Overall it was very badly narrated by the author
Her speech patterns are strange and distracting, with odd pauses and emphasis obscuring the meaning of the text.

Absolutely, truly bad.

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5 people found this helpful