The Book of Revelations: Women and Their Secrets From the 1950s to the Present Day

by Juliet Nicolson

‘Utterly engrossing and timely’ INDIA KNIGHT
‘A true act of bravery and sisterhood’ ELIZABETH DAY
‘Fascinating…truly valuable’ JULIA SAMUEL
‘I gobbled this book up. It’s a gem’ HELEN BONHAM CARTER


A fascinating blend of social history and first-person stories looking at women and their secrets - and what they tell us about our changing times

Do you want to know a secret?

The average person is keeping thirteen secrets at any one time, five of which they’ve never shared with a soul. A secret can thrill one person and destroy another; and the deepest ones echo far down the generations.

The Book of Revelations is a book about the secrets women the ones they are forced into, the ones they hold through shame, and the ones they share. Told through a kaleidoscopic blend of first-person stories and memoir, from the ‘silent generation’ of women in the 1950s to the influencers of the 2020s, we witness long-buried family secrets aired at last and the repercussions which occur when women who have been forced to keep quiet find their voice. Finally, we are compelled to wonder whether women are once again in danger of being silenced by censure, caution and fear.

‘A fascinating hybrid of memoir and social history... transforms the highly personal into something universal’ London Standard

‘A time-travelling investigation... it has a depth charge and a sense of the now that is so timely and important’ Jeanette Winterson

Genres: Nonfiction

373 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2025

About the author

Juliet Nicolson is the author of 'The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm' and 'The Great Silence: Britain From the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age.' She read English at Oxford University and has worked in publishing in both the UK and the United States. She has two daughters, and lives with her husband in Sussex.

Reviews

[Tina]

A journey through our relationship with openness and secrecy. How we became more open, and how we’re closing down again. Women’s experiences divulge the difficulties over the decade, ending at the time of Trump’s second election win, despite horrendous policies against women (and many others, but that’s not within the scope of this book). It’s not a comfortable read, won’t be to everyone’s taste, but wow, it should be read.

[Angel Cranshaw]

brings perspective and power, very interesting Book!

[Aida Saldaña Hernandez]

When started reading it I thought that I will give to my daughter to read because there are some many things the book mentions that a young woman must now.
Then, as I finished the book I felt that it was a very good compilation of many issues that women had to face and still face in our society.
We need more awareness, now more than ever with the amount of misinformed young people and the unfiltered easily available content on social media, there must be a way for parents to help raise the awareness and hence protect the young minds and bodies from any threats.
This book is not a self-help book, nor a manual about how to live your life, but it is am eye-opening to a once called women's world and its very well written. It takes you from story to story about the secrets women had to keep because of the culture at the time they've lived in.

[iCod]

Wow I loved this book. It was like a fascinating conversation with an old and wise friend. Just fab, thank you JN

[Morag Goldfinch]

Impossible to give a star rating. Fascinating, sometimes lurid, depressing in its account of loss of freedoms, whether in Afghanistan or in the USA right now.

[Valerie McGurk]

An interesting, informative and thoughtful read.