What an absolutely amazing story!

I knew absolutely nothing about Etta Lemon starting this book, simply intrigued about who she was and how she was connected to birds. What a fabulous unknown narrative….. the weaving in of her links with the suffrage movement but from an anti suffrage perspective was very interesting alongside a back drop of society at the time and it’s attitudes towards women. Loved this book, such descriptive narrative I could literally visualise almost every scene. Read passionately by the author herself. Thoroughly enjoyable!

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1 person found this helpful

Such a wonderful book!

This is so beautifully written and narrated. I felt at different times moved, fascinated, educated, and outraged in this account of Etta Lemon's life. I'm so glad I got to know her and I now feel as though I do. Thank you for taking the time and the care to write this for us Tessa Boase. I'm off to read your other book now.

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Fascinating Listen

I knew a lot about the fight for women’s suffrage already but nothing about the history of the RSPB or the prolific feather industry of the late Victorian era. The book gives a fascinating insight into other political struggles of the time and juxtaposes them against a backdrop of female emancipation. It encourages the reader to consider all sides of the various arguments and leaves us to make up our minds about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, both in relation to the fight for the vote and the fight to prohibit ‘murderous millenary’. Highly recommend this to anyone who thinks they knows about the suffragettes or the origins of the RSPB!

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3 people found this helpful

Beautiful & brilliant

Beautifully written and read. An incredible story of welfare and rights. The parallels and overlaps between Etta Lemon’s campaign and the suffrage movement is particularly poignant.

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So good, I listened twice

Prior to hearing this biography, I was completely ignorant of Etta Lemon & her (many) accomplishments. That educational discrepancy has, thankfully, been corrected by listening to this amazing story - so intricately researched & completely without bias.
The ONLY audiobook i've listened to, in entirety, immediately after finishing!

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3 people found this helpful

Mrs Pankhurst

So much I didn’t know before listening to this. It was excellent. Highly recommend to all

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3 people found this helpful

Biography or a social history?

The title suggests a biography but the book is more than that. I would suggest that it is mistitled, nonetheless, an important and quite worthwhile read.

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An eye opening story of the birth of the RSPB

Overall I really enjoyed this story of Etta lemons campaign and hadn't appreciated the complexity of the millinery trade and the uphill battle that Etta and her fellow campaigners faced . Very much this is a book about politics, social standing and women's sufferage threaded in with the story of Ella's life and many campaign's,most prominent of which was the campaign to end the suffering and,in somd cases , extinction of birds for the sake of fashion.
If I had a criticism of this book it is that it went overly deep into the suffragette movement,which although relevant to the story sometimes became over dominate and it started to feel as those the author was getting sidetracked, however I would still recommend this book and the author/ narrator has a very good voice which is easy to listen to.

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Surprising, gripping and unexpectedly moving

This is the story of the women who set up the RSPB, campaigning against the fashion for feathered hats - an unusual, entertaining and, at times, shocking journey through high Victorian and Edwardian society. This was a world where every women had a hat, and some had hundreds of hats. A world where birds were thought to make pretty trimmings for these hats, and were slaughtered by the thousand for the milinery trade. I'll never look at another picture of a suffragette rally again through the same eyes, now that I know so many of them are wearing 'murderous millinery'. It starts with the feather industry, the poor girls slaving away making plumed ornaments to go on the hats of more fortunate women. Then come the bird-loving women behind the RSPB - I love the name and the character Etta Lemon, why haven't we heard of her before? Moving to the suffrage movement, which was an overlapping women's campaign, sharing methods and many members with the RSPB. Finally, the perplexing contradictions of women fighting each other - over fashion, over the vote, over a woman's place in the world. This is a rich, surprising and gripping story, beautifully delivered. I now want to see the pictures, so will probably get the book.

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11 people found this helpful

Brilliant

I’ve learned a lot
Never realised the murder of millions of innocent birds was allowed for fashion SHAMEFUL !

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