Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis

Well-behaved women don't make history: difficult women do.

'This is the antidote to saccharine you-go-girl fluff. Effortlessly erudite and funny' Caroline Criado-Perez

Strikers in saris. Bomb-throwing suffragettes. The pioneer of the refuge movement who became a men's rights activist.

Forget feel-good heroines: meet the feminist trailblazers who have been airbrushed from history for being 'difficult' - and discover how they made a difference.

Here are their stories in all their shocking, funny and unvarnished glory.

** Shortlisted in the 2020 Parliamentary Book Awards **

'All the history you need to understand why you're so furious, angry and still hopeful about being a woman now. A book that is part intellectual weapon in your handbag, part cocktail with a friend' Caitlin Moran

'Compulsive, rigorous, unforgettable, hilarious and devastating' Hadley Freeman

'A great manifesto for all those women who have never been very good at being well-behaved.' Mary Beard

'Difficult Women is full of vivid detail, jam-packed with research and fizzing with provocation' Sunday Times

Whoever said feminists lack a sense of humour has not read enough Lewis... A funny, sparky, wide-ranging account... Her book isn’t at all a conventional history. It’s a collection of powerful personal essays on the gnarly issues that women continue to face... I read Difficult Women with gratitude. It’s an authoritative benchmark of modern feminism, written by someone on top of her game... Hooray for a great book by a clever, clear-sighted, straight-talking, difficult young woman. -- Melanie Reid ― The Times