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Death in Ten Minutes: The Forgotten Life of Radical Suffragette Kitty Marion
In Death in Ten Minutes Fern Riddell uncovers the story of radical suffragette Kitty Marion, told through never before seen personal diaries in Kitty's own hand.
Kitty Marion was sent across the country by the Pankhurst family to carry out a nationwide campaign of bombings and arson attacks, as women fought for the vote using any means necessary. But in the aftermath of World War One, the dangerous and revolutionary actions of Kitty and other militant suffragettes were quickly hushed up and disowned by the previously proud movement, and the women who carried out these attacks were erased from our history. Now, for the first time, their untold story will be brought back to life.
Telling a new history of the women's movement in the light of new and often shocking revelations, this book will ask the question: Why has the life of this incredible woman, and the violence of the suffragettes been forgotten? And, one hundred years later, why are women suddenly finding themselves under threat again?
Kitty Marion was sent across the country by the Pankhurst family to carry out a nationwide campaign of bombings and arson attacks, as women fought for the vote using any means necessary. But in the aftermath of World War One, the dangerous and revolutionary actions of Kitty and other militant suffragettes were quickly hushed up and disowned by the previously proud movement, and the women who carried out these attacks were erased from our history. Now, for the first time, their untold story will be brought back to life.
Telling a new history of the women's movement in the light of new and often shocking revelations, this book will ask the question: Why has the life of this incredible woman, and the violence of the suffragettes been forgotten? And, one hundred years later, why are women suddenly finding themselves under threat again?
280 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2018
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1437 people want to read
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September 10, 2020
This biography illustrates how we often sanitise history for our own purposes. Kitty Marion was born in Germany in 1871 and left for England when she was fifteen following years of abuse from her father. She did a variety of jobs before becoming a music hall performer. In music hall she discovered the nineteenth century equivalent of the casting couch and how often bookings could depend on performing favours for the manager or agent. Marion fought and spoke up against this and found work hard to get. She joined the burgeoning suffragette movement and became one of their leading activists and joined a more radical group called the Young Hot Bloods. She was imprisoned many times and force fed over 200 times. Being of German origin she had some problems during the First World War and moved to the US. There she linked up with Margaret Sanger and started promoting and arguing for birth control: seeing it as an extension of her work for the suffragettes, also assisting Marie Stopes.
Yet Kitty Marion is hardly remembered. The suffragettes are well remembered for civil disobedience, for Emily Wilding Davison throwing herself in front of the king’s horse. What isn’t clearly remembered is the depth and extent of the suffragette campaign. It was a violent campaign involving arson, bombs (including nail bombs) and acts of terrorism. Politicians and opponents were directly targeted and may of their homes were burnt down. There were literally hundreds of these attacks and there was panic and opprobrium in the press. The violence has been painted out, but Kitty Marion was in the middle of it and Riddell has painstakingly researched her life and told her story:
“As conservative feminism took a vice-like grip of our history and the suffragettes began to sanitise their own history, the women who saw sex, freedom and independence as a universal right were ignored, as were the real lives and experiences of the women who had fought so hard and risked so much. We need to understand that those who have sought to be in control of our history of women decided to only tell one story and to exclude those voices, those women’s lives that did not conform. These are stories that need to be told.”
This leads to the polemical part of the book. Riddell looks at two strands of feminism: one she describes as conservative and tending towards purity and morality and seeing birth control as just giving men another means to abuse women. On the other hand she describes a sex positive feminism which believed in birth control and giving women freedom and control of their own bodies. Riddell puts Marion firmly in the second category.
This is a very good account of a too little known suffragette and an interesting account of some less well known (read forgotten) events. It also gives a good account of part of the birth control movement. There is polemic as well, which is interesting whichever side of the argument you are on.
Yet Kitty Marion is hardly remembered. The suffragettes are well remembered for civil disobedience, for Emily Wilding Davison throwing herself in front of the king’s horse. What isn’t clearly remembered is the depth and extent of the suffragette campaign. It was a violent campaign involving arson, bombs (including nail bombs) and acts of terrorism. Politicians and opponents were directly targeted and may of their homes were burnt down. There were literally hundreds of these attacks and there was panic and opprobrium in the press. The violence has been painted out, but Kitty Marion was in the middle of it and Riddell has painstakingly researched her life and told her story:
“As conservative feminism took a vice-like grip of our history and the suffragettes began to sanitise their own history, the women who saw sex, freedom and independence as a universal right were ignored, as were the real lives and experiences of the women who had fought so hard and risked so much. We need to understand that those who have sought to be in control of our history of women decided to only tell one story and to exclude those voices, those women’s lives that did not conform. These are stories that need to be told.”
This leads to the polemical part of the book. Riddell looks at two strands of feminism: one she describes as conservative and tending towards purity and morality and seeing birth control as just giving men another means to abuse women. On the other hand she describes a sex positive feminism which believed in birth control and giving women freedom and control of their own bodies. Riddell puts Marion firmly in the second category.
This is a very good account of a too little known suffragette and an interesting account of some less well known (read forgotten) events. It also gives a good account of part of the birth control movement. There is polemic as well, which is interesting whichever side of the argument you are on.
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April 29, 2019A fluently written and extremely angry account of the forgotten life of a suffragette. Not the noble suffering kind, either. Kitty Marion was one of the ones who smashed windows, burned houses, planted nail bombs, sent explosive and corrosive materials through the post, and engaged in a sustained campaign of full terrorist violence that could have had a body count in the hundreds if the dice had fallen differently. And if you like me didn't know the scale of suffragette violent terrorism in the 1910s, that's because, this book shows, the suffragette leaders and historians made a concerted effort to erase it in favour of the Nobly Suffering Women narrative. Terrorists not being quite so endearing.
Riddell answers the question of "where was she radicalised?" very easily. Marion went from an abusive father to seeing her hopes of music hall stardom destroyed by #MeToo agents and producers. She was radicalised by shitty abusive men, a dismissive and treacherous establishment, and a culture that condemned women for existing in any but the approved way, especially sexually.
Marion was also a birth control activist, and Riddell shows clearly how the middle class suffragettes wanted to distance themselves from sex positivity or female sexual agency. They didn't see that without birth control women are in chains; they still bought into the male narrative of what constitutes a Good Woman. (Props here to Annie Besant who fought the vile misogynist abusive Contagious Diseases Act and was pro birth control, and was thus ostracised and rewritten as the match girl lady.) No wonder Kitty Marion set fire to things.
A very angry, important and revelatory read that I wish I'd had in my teens.
Riddell answers the question of "where was she radicalised?" very easily. Marion went from an abusive father to seeing her hopes of music hall stardom destroyed by #MeToo agents and producers. She was radicalised by shitty abusive men, a dismissive and treacherous establishment, and a culture that condemned women for existing in any but the approved way, especially sexually.
Marion was also a birth control activist, and Riddell shows clearly how the middle class suffragettes wanted to distance themselves from sex positivity or female sexual agency. They didn't see that without birth control women are in chains; they still bought into the male narrative of what constitutes a Good Woman. (Props here to Annie Besant who fought the vile misogynist abusive Contagious Diseases Act and was pro birth control, and was thus ostracised and rewritten as the match girl lady.) No wonder Kitty Marion set fire to things.
A very angry, important and revelatory read that I wish I'd had in my teens.
April 19, 2020
There’s something incredibly powerful about reading a biography of someone who fought for the rights you take for granted, but that you’ve never heard of before. It was fascinating and discomforting in equal measure.
April 18, 2018
Death in Ten Minutes is an extremely readable book. It’s compelling, engaging and extremely informative. More than that, it’s an important book, and it’s an seriously important one at this moment in time.
Fern Riddell’s biography of the music hall performer, suffragette, and birth control campaigner Kitty Marion manages to walk the difficult line between presenting an historical subject firmly in the context of the time while presenting the relevance of that subject to today’s discourse with perfect balance. The source materials are Marion’s own words from an account, never published, that Marion wrote in the 1930s, and a wealth of archive materials. Marion’s voice comes through powerfully. As the author of a recent biography myself, I can attest how hard it is to capture the character of an historical figure, even one about whom much has been written. Dr Riddell succeeds admirably, and while her own authorial voice is clear and engaging, it is Marion’s voice that is front and centre.
And it is an important voice from one of the most significant players in the suffrage movement, and the movement to put women in control of their sexual destiny. It’s not just the fact that 100 years after the first women were able to vote, they still make up less than a third of MPs and only just over a quarter of government ministers. Death in Ten Minutes is unflinching about the sexual power over women that this legal and social influence conferred on men and in some respects still does.
In these days of #MeToo and #TimesUp, the story of a woman who made her name on the stage at a time when theatrical agents and other influential figures expected to be able to obtain sexual favours from performers with impunity shows that there is nothing new under the sun. Indeed, the fact that little seems to have changed in over 100 years despite the success of the women’s suffrage movement shows the urgency of change, and reinforces the necessity to strike while the iron is hot. These conversations have been had before, and many times. A moment in Chapter Five where Kitty finally snaps at a meeting of the Variety Artists’ Federation and reveals the litany of abuse attempts she had faced for simply seeking work, is inspirational in the context of the time – she is cheered and encouraged to make a complaint to London County Council. It could have been a moment when things started to change for women in showbusiness. As Dr Riddell presents it, it is heartbreaking – LCC decides there is no case worth pursuing, and the recent history of the Weinstein affair is a stark indicator of how much and how long women have suffered at the hands of men who hold all the cards.
It’s not hard to see how women at the time became ever more militant in their efforts to obtain equal influence in society. Marion is shown going from regarding the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as ‘hooligans’ to a most committed member of their ranks in a short space of time. And the nature of that militancy, Dr Riddell restoring the unvarnished and sometimes brutal facts, is crucial to Kitty Marion’s story. The campaign of violence of which Marion was at the forefront carried out by the WSPU, especially the ‘Young Hot Bloods’, was undoubtedly extreme. Today it would be considered terrorism – and in some quarters it was at the time, too, even in those days of Irish Republican violence and not long after the ‘anarchist outrages’ of the 1880s and 90s. While property was overwhelmingly the focus of the WSPU’s destructive effort, there were direct attacks on people too, and many of the bomb and arson attacks could be said to have recklessly endangered life. Indeed, several of the bombs described in the book seem to have been designed to disperse shrapnel like an anti-personnel mine. The arson attack Marion carried out on Hurst Park Racecourse (hours after the death of Emily Wilding Davison at Epsom) she only narrowly escaped with her own life and that of her companion, Clara Giveen. Houses were destroyed, churches and government buildings damaged, railway carriages incinerated, postboxes sabotaged, letterbombs sent, and countless windows smashed. Guns loaded with blank rounds were fired at public events. The intent was to terrify and destabilise. Nevertheless, the political resistance and physical violence brought to bear against the suffrage movement presented in the book – the descriptions of force-feeding are brutal – leads me to the conclusion (perhaps different from Dr Riddell’s) that the extremism of the WSPU’s campaign was necessary to its success, and could even be argued to be proportionate.
Dr Riddell does not gloss over the violence of the campaign, which the subsequent generations have sought to sanitise and even ‘feminise’ (where even the early accounts written by the suffragettes themselves are shown to deliberately leave out the worst of the violence). Instead she argues that it is necessary to emphasise this to restore the agency of the women who carried out the campaign. Moreover, Riddell does not put the suffragettes on a pedestal – the WSPU leadership of Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst is shown here warts and all. Most distressingly, the willingness of the WSPU leadership to marginalise, even cut off those such as Marion and Wilding Davison who had put their lives on the line and given utter commitment to the cause.
The story does not end with the Representation of the People Act, 1918. Indeed, by this time Marion is no longer in the UK, having been shamefully treated as an alien due to her German birth and even investigated as an enemy spy during the First World War. She had been packed off to the USA in 1915, where she was treated with suspicion by the US suffrage movement, which eschewed the militancy of the UK campaign. Instead, she found a home with the burgeoning birth control movement – a campaign demonstrated to be in many ways every bit as important to the fight for women’s ownership of their identities as the struggle for the vote. This again drove a wedge between her and the increasingly conservative WSPU leadership, and the moment that Marion is spurned by Emmeline Pankhurst in New York is another moment of shock and pathos.
Marion is revealed as a fascinating and inspirational figure, of her time and yet pointing determinedly to the future – hers and ours. It’s somewhat shameful that her story has not been fully told before, but Death in Ten Minutes restores this crucial figure to her rightful place as one of the leading architects of women’s rights and equality.
Fern Riddell’s biography of the music hall performer, suffragette, and birth control campaigner Kitty Marion manages to walk the difficult line between presenting an historical subject firmly in the context of the time while presenting the relevance of that subject to today’s discourse with perfect balance. The source materials are Marion’s own words from an account, never published, that Marion wrote in the 1930s, and a wealth of archive materials. Marion’s voice comes through powerfully. As the author of a recent biography myself, I can attest how hard it is to capture the character of an historical figure, even one about whom much has been written. Dr Riddell succeeds admirably, and while her own authorial voice is clear and engaging, it is Marion’s voice that is front and centre.
And it is an important voice from one of the most significant players in the suffrage movement, and the movement to put women in control of their sexual destiny. It’s not just the fact that 100 years after the first women were able to vote, they still make up less than a third of MPs and only just over a quarter of government ministers. Death in Ten Minutes is unflinching about the sexual power over women that this legal and social influence conferred on men and in some respects still does.
In these days of #MeToo and #TimesUp, the story of a woman who made her name on the stage at a time when theatrical agents and other influential figures expected to be able to obtain sexual favours from performers with impunity shows that there is nothing new under the sun. Indeed, the fact that little seems to have changed in over 100 years despite the success of the women’s suffrage movement shows the urgency of change, and reinforces the necessity to strike while the iron is hot. These conversations have been had before, and many times. A moment in Chapter Five where Kitty finally snaps at a meeting of the Variety Artists’ Federation and reveals the litany of abuse attempts she had faced for simply seeking work, is inspirational in the context of the time – she is cheered and encouraged to make a complaint to London County Council. It could have been a moment when things started to change for women in showbusiness. As Dr Riddell presents it, it is heartbreaking – LCC decides there is no case worth pursuing, and the recent history of the Weinstein affair is a stark indicator of how much and how long women have suffered at the hands of men who hold all the cards.
It’s not hard to see how women at the time became ever more militant in their efforts to obtain equal influence in society. Marion is shown going from regarding the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as ‘hooligans’ to a most committed member of their ranks in a short space of time. And the nature of that militancy, Dr Riddell restoring the unvarnished and sometimes brutal facts, is crucial to Kitty Marion’s story. The campaign of violence of which Marion was at the forefront carried out by the WSPU, especially the ‘Young Hot Bloods’, was undoubtedly extreme. Today it would be considered terrorism – and in some quarters it was at the time, too, even in those days of Irish Republican violence and not long after the ‘anarchist outrages’ of the 1880s and 90s. While property was overwhelmingly the focus of the WSPU’s destructive effort, there were direct attacks on people too, and many of the bomb and arson attacks could be said to have recklessly endangered life. Indeed, several of the bombs described in the book seem to have been designed to disperse shrapnel like an anti-personnel mine. The arson attack Marion carried out on Hurst Park Racecourse (hours after the death of Emily Wilding Davison at Epsom) she only narrowly escaped with her own life and that of her companion, Clara Giveen. Houses were destroyed, churches and government buildings damaged, railway carriages incinerated, postboxes sabotaged, letterbombs sent, and countless windows smashed. Guns loaded with blank rounds were fired at public events. The intent was to terrify and destabilise. Nevertheless, the political resistance and physical violence brought to bear against the suffrage movement presented in the book – the descriptions of force-feeding are brutal – leads me to the conclusion (perhaps different from Dr Riddell’s) that the extremism of the WSPU’s campaign was necessary to its success, and could even be argued to be proportionate.
Dr Riddell does not gloss over the violence of the campaign, which the subsequent generations have sought to sanitise and even ‘feminise’ (where even the early accounts written by the suffragettes themselves are shown to deliberately leave out the worst of the violence). Instead she argues that it is necessary to emphasise this to restore the agency of the women who carried out the campaign. Moreover, Riddell does not put the suffragettes on a pedestal – the WSPU leadership of Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst is shown here warts and all. Most distressingly, the willingness of the WSPU leadership to marginalise, even cut off those such as Marion and Wilding Davison who had put their lives on the line and given utter commitment to the cause.
The story does not end with the Representation of the People Act, 1918. Indeed, by this time Marion is no longer in the UK, having been shamefully treated as an alien due to her German birth and even investigated as an enemy spy during the First World War. She had been packed off to the USA in 1915, where she was treated with suspicion by the US suffrage movement, which eschewed the militancy of the UK campaign. Instead, she found a home with the burgeoning birth control movement – a campaign demonstrated to be in many ways every bit as important to the fight for women’s ownership of their identities as the struggle for the vote. This again drove a wedge between her and the increasingly conservative WSPU leadership, and the moment that Marion is spurned by Emmeline Pankhurst in New York is another moment of shock and pathos.
Marion is revealed as a fascinating and inspirational figure, of her time and yet pointing determinedly to the future – hers and ours. It’s somewhat shameful that her story has not been fully told before, but Death in Ten Minutes restores this crucial figure to her rightful place as one of the leading architects of women’s rights and equality.
June 27, 2018
A passionate and compelling account of the life and achievements of a truly incredible woman. Fern Riddell's passion for the topic and exhaustive research helps this book go from great to fantastic. I learnt so much about the suffragette movement and their ideology, things that have been overlooked or purposely left out of other books on the topic - as they didn't fit in to the accepted narrative about the suffragettes and their actions. 10/10, very much worth checking out!
September 16, 2019
Surprisingly, very interesting. Tragically Kitty Marion’s story and others like hers have been omitted and/or whitewashed from the history books (although they were UK, not US, citizens so I could be wrong about our neighbor’s history books across the pond).
These women were straight up violent domestic terrorists that organized, agitated and broke the law. They were arsonists and amateur bombers that were not afraid of jail or the harsh conditions they endured while imprisoned.
While I don’t agree with their methods, I admire their persistence and dedication to their cause. If you like true stories about strong women, you will probably enjoy this biography. I have to admit the author threw in some mind boggling tidbits about female martyrs that had me questioning ‘whattt???’ and searching the internet to fact check (although I’ve learned ‘don’t believe everything you read on the internet’ so who knows🤷♀️). Nevertheless, if the seemingly out of the blue random tidbits are true ... whattt!!!! How? Why? Seriously? .... no way. Seriously??
These women were straight up violent domestic terrorists that organized, agitated and broke the law. They were arsonists and amateur bombers that were not afraid of jail or the harsh conditions they endured while imprisoned.
While I don’t agree with their methods, I admire their persistence and dedication to their cause. If you like true stories about strong women, you will probably enjoy this biography. I have to admit the author threw in some mind boggling tidbits about female martyrs that had me questioning ‘whattt???’ and searching the internet to fact check (although I’ve learned ‘don’t believe everything you read on the internet’ so who knows🤷♀️). Nevertheless, if the seemingly out of the blue random tidbits are true ... whattt!!!! How? Why? Seriously? .... no way. Seriously??
June 25, 2018
Kitty Marion was born in Germany but escaped her abusive father when she was 15 by moving to England to live with her aunt. Her dream was to be on the stage and she eventually became a very successful music hall artiste. But she hated the way the world of men treated women and how as a female you were supposed to allow men to have their way with you just to be able to work. It was the misogyny and sexual harassment she suffered that caused her to become involved with the Suffragettes who were using ever more alarming tactics to try and win women the vote. Some of them became terrorists, including Kitty. This was an amazing biography of an amazing woman. While I don't agree with some of what she did because innocent people were hurt, I found her life absolutely fascinating.
March 14, 2019
What an amazing book with so much history that dives into the life of Kitty Marion! Fern Riddells biography of Kitty Marion who grew up in Germany her father was abusive so she moved to England to live with her aunt. Kitty became not only a music performer but also a suffragette and even a birth control campaigner! The author did an astounding job of presenting a historical book during that time along with showing how important to this day with what Kitty was fighting for. She uses archive materials that are in Kitty’s own words that’s where never published before. While working she suffered horrible sexual harassment the theatre agents and other powerful men expected sexual favors from her and other musical performers, which while I was reading this part immediately made me think of how this is continuing and all the news that has come out which made me extremely angry! All Kitty wanted to show is that woman deserve to be treated as an equal and they shouldn’t have to fight for something that should just be given were people and human too! When Kitty becomes a member of the Woman’s Social and Political Union , there were times before she actual thought they were crazy. This is when the book takes a change! The WSPU carried out acts considered acts of terrorism , attacks even aimed at certain people theses acts were bombs and arson attacks. One attack Kitty was part of was an arson attack in Hurst Park. This attack she barely made it out alive when reading this my heart was pounding. This book really showed you the lengths not only that Kitty but the other woman in her group took to be taken seriously! Some of these were building being damaged, houses even churches, government building railroads and even mail bombs these are just a few examples. That’s why I used the word terrorism because that’s what they would be considered today. This biography honestly blew me away and I am kicking myself that I took so long to read. Kitty Marion’s life fascinated me the author really did an amazing job showing us Kitty’s life I give this book four stars!
April 17, 2022
This book shed light into the sanitisation of suffragette history and what truly occurred in the fight for women's vote and access to birth control. The suffragettes have been portrayed as a passive group of women who through their words and unviolent protests have convinced the governing men that they also deserve to vote. This was a far outcry from what truly happened - planned arson and bomb attacks which led to the burning of houses and destruction of telephone lines. The suffragettes were a violent group that were continuously arrested and subjected to horrific force-feedings. Kitty Marion, a German immigrant who had fled from an abusive father and took to the stage only to suffer from sexual abuse from her agents who would only offer her work in exchange for sexual favours, was one of the most dangerous suffragettes in history. Yet her name has been seemingly erased from said history - with her autobiography and historical records pushed into the darkness for the storytelling that was the suffragette history. Kitty Marion was one of the first sex positive feminists and it is for this reason her name has been removed from history. After being accused of being a German spy and having to leave to America, Kitty Marion joined Margaret Sanger in the fight for birth control, an action that would make her anti birth control suffragette (or WSPU) leaders look the other way and abandon her. Although having faced sexual abuse throughout her stage days, Kitty was aware that there were mutually consenting relationships that wanted sex outside of the means of conception but instead in strive of the intimacy of the act. This book was so well researched and delved into all possible aspects of Marion and her peers. It is sad to see how such a powerful woman was erased from history to promote an image of women martyrdom and passivity.
May 11, 2018
This is a fantastic book.
It’s the story of Kitty Marion, Suffragette and Family Planning Activist, but it is also the story of the Suffragettes and how their campaign of violence has been virtually edited out of history. It is also the story of how a woman who had become a music hall performer struggled against the sexual exploitation of agents and managers. Kitty Marion would have understood the #metoo movement and been vocal in her support.
The astonishing thing about this book isn’t that Marion was involved in terrorism – it is a strong word but the only one that can really apply to the scale of the Suffragette campaign of violence – but that the scale of what happened has almost been entirely forgotten by British society. People remember the martyrdom of Emily Wilding Davison – but even that story was cleaned up - and they might know of women being imprisoned, force-fed and have heard of ‘The Cat & Mouse’ Act but the full level of governmental cruelty has faded away in the same way that the arson, bombings and chemical attacks by the Suffragettes have dropped away too. The fact that there were no deaths seems more a matter of luck than judgement. How violent would these protests have become if World War One intervened?
To quote Dr Riddell there was “A determined sanitation was already underway as the creation of the perfect ‘Suffragette Spirit’ – a noble heroine whose purity and morality was the reason men had come to their senses and awarded women the vote – became the idolised cultural memory of the fighters of the WSPU.”
Marion’s story is one well-worth the telling. It would make a fantastic television series, although Marion’s lack of a love life might put off those who like a little romance in their stories. Marion never seems to have needed male approval or male love in her life. But that shouldn’t be mistaken for a woman who didn’t understand sexual desire or who disapproved of it. Dr Riddell also uses Marion’s story to illustrate how feminism has struggled to deal with female sexuality creating a false separation between sexual desire and respectability. This latter issue helps explain why Kitty Marion – and others – have been quietly pushed out of the historical record.
This book benefits from Dr Riddell’s work on Victorian sexual desire and there too society seems to have created a false memory of sexual ignorance and naivety. The classic example being the idea that women were expected to ‘lie back and think of England’ because no one had any idea about the female orgasm. This is nonsense. It’s not my place to explain why here but look at Dr Riddell’s other book, ‘The Victorian Guide to Sex’ for an expert’s view. Dr Riddell is a cultural historian and she seems to have found a way of digging out parts of our history that have become foggy in the cultural memory.
Interestingly, I started reading this at the same time as Svetlana Alexievich’s ‘The Unwomanly Face of War’, which talks about memory and history in a similar way to Dr Riddell. Indeed, a quote from that book seems to apply to Kitty Marion herself. Alexievich talks about history and says “But the narrators are not only witnesses – least of all are they witnesses; they are actors and makers.” Marion was both the narrator of her own story, a witness but most importantly she was an actor. Part of events forgotten and deservedly now dusted off by Dr Riddell.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s brilliantly written, lovingly researched and reminds us that history isn’t always what we think it is. It is also a reminder that whilst much has changed since Kitty Marion died in 1944 a lot hasn’t. The power dynamics might have changed a little, but women are still exploited by men in power and men are still trying to hang on to their privileges.
The story of Kitty Marion is the story of a woman who stood up to be counted. A woman who was punished for her beliefs and activities and a woman who history tried to make invisible. Dr Riddell deserves applause for pulling Marion out of the fog of history and helping tell her story.
Read it.
It’s the story of Kitty Marion, Suffragette and Family Planning Activist, but it is also the story of the Suffragettes and how their campaign of violence has been virtually edited out of history. It is also the story of how a woman who had become a music hall performer struggled against the sexual exploitation of agents and managers. Kitty Marion would have understood the #metoo movement and been vocal in her support.
The astonishing thing about this book isn’t that Marion was involved in terrorism – it is a strong word but the only one that can really apply to the scale of the Suffragette campaign of violence – but that the scale of what happened has almost been entirely forgotten by British society. People remember the martyrdom of Emily Wilding Davison – but even that story was cleaned up - and they might know of women being imprisoned, force-fed and have heard of ‘The Cat & Mouse’ Act but the full level of governmental cruelty has faded away in the same way that the arson, bombings and chemical attacks by the Suffragettes have dropped away too. The fact that there were no deaths seems more a matter of luck than judgement. How violent would these protests have become if World War One intervened?
To quote Dr Riddell there was “A determined sanitation was already underway as the creation of the perfect ‘Suffragette Spirit’ – a noble heroine whose purity and morality was the reason men had come to their senses and awarded women the vote – became the idolised cultural memory of the fighters of the WSPU.”
Marion’s story is one well-worth the telling. It would make a fantastic television series, although Marion’s lack of a love life might put off those who like a little romance in their stories. Marion never seems to have needed male approval or male love in her life. But that shouldn’t be mistaken for a woman who didn’t understand sexual desire or who disapproved of it. Dr Riddell also uses Marion’s story to illustrate how feminism has struggled to deal with female sexuality creating a false separation between sexual desire and respectability. This latter issue helps explain why Kitty Marion – and others – have been quietly pushed out of the historical record.
This book benefits from Dr Riddell’s work on Victorian sexual desire and there too society seems to have created a false memory of sexual ignorance and naivety. The classic example being the idea that women were expected to ‘lie back and think of England’ because no one had any idea about the female orgasm. This is nonsense. It’s not my place to explain why here but look at Dr Riddell’s other book, ‘The Victorian Guide to Sex’ for an expert’s view. Dr Riddell is a cultural historian and she seems to have found a way of digging out parts of our history that have become foggy in the cultural memory.
Interestingly, I started reading this at the same time as Svetlana Alexievich’s ‘The Unwomanly Face of War’, which talks about memory and history in a similar way to Dr Riddell. Indeed, a quote from that book seems to apply to Kitty Marion herself. Alexievich talks about history and says “But the narrators are not only witnesses – least of all are they witnesses; they are actors and makers.” Marion was both the narrator of her own story, a witness but most importantly she was an actor. Part of events forgotten and deservedly now dusted off by Dr Riddell.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s brilliantly written, lovingly researched and reminds us that history isn’t always what we think it is. It is also a reminder that whilst much has changed since Kitty Marion died in 1944 a lot hasn’t. The power dynamics might have changed a little, but women are still exploited by men in power and men are still trying to hang on to their privileges.
The story of Kitty Marion is the story of a woman who stood up to be counted. A woman who was punished for her beliefs and activities and a woman who history tried to make invisible. Dr Riddell deserves applause for pulling Marion out of the fog of history and helping tell her story.
Read it.
August 2, 2018
This was a bit disappointing. I'd read Diane Atkinson's general (and very detailed) history of the suffragettes before this. Diane mentioned Kitty quite a lot, and she seemed like a very interesting character, so I had hoped the biography would go into much greater detail. However, it did not. It was written as a popular history that assumed no knowledge about the suffragettes, or early feminism and spent at least half the book explaining the background. I would have assumed people with no knowledge would have picked up a more general book before reading this one, and it did bog it down quite a bit. The book (like Atkinson's) had extracts from Kitty's unpublished biography. I think I would have preferred to have her whole book reprinted instead. Riddell seemed to take everything she had written at face value and reproduced it as fact, down to the elements of weather and conversations recalled decades later. The biography featured heavily in the early parts of her life, but not unfortuantely in the activism parts, so we were left wondering how and why she took on such a violent activism role. Generally there was much less explanation of the why and the ramifications of actions than in Atkinson's book. The first half focused on sexual education, but this was totally ignored during the suffrage period. I did learn a little more about her background and life in the US, but found the suffrage material to be very vague. I would really have preferred a more indepth book.
December 18, 2020
An intriguing and readable popular history that I kept wishing (sorry!) were a fuller academic treatment. Riddell is working with some wonderful underutilized material--primarily the unpublished memoir and scrapbooks of the militant suffragist Kitty Marion--and she gestures most effectively at the occlusion of the violent wing of the WSPU from both official suffrage history and later scholarship. Marion's life--music-hall artist, suffragist bomber, birth-control crusader--offers Riddell rich and compelling material, but the work of contextualization often feels thin, the stuff of potted mini-lectures. Still, this is worth reading for the indignation with which Riddell limns the pervasive anti-sex stance of the Pankhursts and others, and the obvious troubled affinity she feels for her subject. Most valuably, Riddell demonstrates how much demystification, how much de-sanitizing, there is to do if we are to recover the full history of feminism.
September 22, 2021
igal juhul oli see väga hariv lugemine, sest võib öelda küll, et mu senised teadmised sufražettidest olid 1) pinnapealsed, 2) nagu siit selgub, sufražettide teatud fraktsiooni poolt hoolikalt kureeritud. seega, jah, kujutasin minagi ette, et tegu oli väärikate prouadega, kes võitlesid naiste hääleõiguse välja lihtsalt, ma ei teagi, viisaka, aga tungiva vooruslikkuse abil? ok, olin muuseumis näinud ka mingit münti, millele oli "votes for women" loosung sisse pressitud, mitte siis mündivermijate, vaid aktivistide poolt. nii et tundus, et väga hullude mässajatega nagu ei olnud tegu. rohkem nagu grafitimeistritega.
siit saab siis loo teise poole teada - ühe konkreetse sufražeti eluloo põhjal räägitakse ära kõik see, kuidas tegelikult 20. sajandi alguse Suurbritannias see naiste hääleõiguse (ja üldse õiguste) eest võitlemine käis. akendelõhkumised ja grafitid, okei, aga ka süütamised, pommid, happerünnakud - tegu oli täitsa asise terrorismiga! seda tuli, jah, läbi viia kübarais ja maani seelikutes, ja surma hämmastaval kombel keegi vist ikkagi ei saanud (viga küll, vt happerünnakud), aga avalikke hooneid hävitati ikka mitmeid. ja sideliine - küberrünnakud põhimõtteliselt:)
naisi, kes seda kõike toime panid, pandi hulgakaupa vangi, kus nad kiirelt näljastreigile asusid, mispeale neid voolikuga nina kaudu sundtoideti. see kõik oli päris võigas. nad said WSPUlt (sufražettide võitlev tiib) selle eest medaleid vähemalt. aga lõpuks ei teinud kogu sellele möllule lõppu mitte see, et naised oleksid hääleõiguse välja võidelnud, vaid lihtsalt maailmasõda tuli peale ja vist ei tundunud enam sobilik siseriiklikult neid pomme panna.
ok, see oli ehk mu enda viga, et ma sellest daamide terrorismist enne suurt midagi ei teadnud, see pole otseselt salastatud info, lihtsalt... tavaliselt ei tule jutuks. aga teine aspekt, mida siin raamatus Kitty Marioni näitel käsitletakse, on sufražettide ja üldse tolleaegsete feministide (ja noh, tolleaegse ühiskonna) suhtumine seksi. ausalt öeldes sellest oleks võinud juttu olla natuke süstemaatilsemalt ja vähema kordamise ja ehk isegi vähema kirega, et oleks selgem, mida autor meile siis täpselt selgeks teha tahtis, aga üldiselt taandus küsimus sellele, et kas naiste seksuaalelu võiks ehk olla nende endi kontrolli all (turvaline, vabatahtlik ja ehk isegi meeldiv ja rahuldustpakkuv) või pole korralikul naisel mingi seksiga üldse mingit pistmist. erinevatel põhjustel oli sufražettide "ametlik" joon pigem see viimane (siin raamatus selgitatakse seda sellega, et keskklassi naised püüdsid oma abielusid niiviisi hoida - parem oleks, kui igasugused vallalised preilid ei saaks väga mugavalt nende mehi võrgutada!)
aga Kitty, kelle elu meile siin ikkagi ära jutustatakse, alustas oma karjääri music halli artistina (mitte väga respektaabel, aga selle eest äärmiselt populaarne meelelahutusvorm Victoria ajal ja kuni esimese maailmasõjani), siis vahepeal süütas sufražetina maju ja ronge ja postkaste jne, ja hiljem, olnud sunnitud Ameerikasse emigreeruma, oli pereplaneerimisaktivist (nii raseduse ärahoidmise kui turvalise katkestamise asjus). esimene ja viimane tegevusala olid põhjusteks, miks kõrgema profiiliga sufražetid (perekond Pankhurstid) ta hiljem ära põlgasid ja maha salgasid. ei läinud nende renomeega kokku selline asi.
targaks sain küll ja huvitav oli ka, aga ikkagi mul oli tunne, et oleks saanud ka paremini toimetada ja selgemalt kirjutada selle raamatu.
siit saab siis loo teise poole teada - ühe konkreetse sufražeti eluloo põhjal räägitakse ära kõik see, kuidas tegelikult 20. sajandi alguse Suurbritannias see naiste hääleõiguse (ja üldse õiguste) eest võitlemine käis. akendelõhkumised ja grafitid, okei, aga ka süütamised, pommid, happerünnakud - tegu oli täitsa asise terrorismiga! seda tuli, jah, läbi viia kübarais ja maani seelikutes, ja surma hämmastaval kombel keegi vist ikkagi ei saanud (viga küll, vt happerünnakud), aga avalikke hooneid hävitati ikka mitmeid. ja sideliine - küberrünnakud põhimõtteliselt:)
naisi, kes seda kõike toime panid, pandi hulgakaupa vangi, kus nad kiirelt näljastreigile asusid, mispeale neid voolikuga nina kaudu sundtoideti. see kõik oli päris võigas. nad said WSPUlt (sufražettide võitlev tiib) selle eest medaleid vähemalt. aga lõpuks ei teinud kogu sellele möllule lõppu mitte see, et naised oleksid hääleõiguse välja võidelnud, vaid lihtsalt maailmasõda tuli peale ja vist ei tundunud enam sobilik siseriiklikult neid pomme panna.
ok, see oli ehk mu enda viga, et ma sellest daamide terrorismist enne suurt midagi ei teadnud, see pole otseselt salastatud info, lihtsalt... tavaliselt ei tule jutuks. aga teine aspekt, mida siin raamatus Kitty Marioni näitel käsitletakse, on sufražettide ja üldse tolleaegsete feministide (ja noh, tolleaegse ühiskonna) suhtumine seksi. ausalt öeldes sellest oleks võinud juttu olla natuke süstemaatilsemalt ja vähema kordamise ja ehk isegi vähema kirega, et oleks selgem, mida autor meile siis täpselt selgeks teha tahtis, aga üldiselt taandus küsimus sellele, et kas naiste seksuaalelu võiks ehk olla nende endi kontrolli all (turvaline, vabatahtlik ja ehk isegi meeldiv ja rahuldustpakkuv) või pole korralikul naisel mingi seksiga üldse mingit pistmist. erinevatel põhjustel oli sufražettide "ametlik" joon pigem see viimane (siin raamatus selgitatakse seda sellega, et keskklassi naised püüdsid oma abielusid niiviisi hoida - parem oleks, kui igasugused vallalised preilid ei saaks väga mugavalt nende mehi võrgutada!)
aga Kitty, kelle elu meile siin ikkagi ära jutustatakse, alustas oma karjääri music halli artistina (mitte väga respektaabel, aga selle eest äärmiselt populaarne meelelahutusvorm Victoria ajal ja kuni esimese maailmasõjani), siis vahepeal süütas sufražetina maju ja ronge ja postkaste jne, ja hiljem, olnud sunnitud Ameerikasse emigreeruma, oli pereplaneerimisaktivist (nii raseduse ärahoidmise kui turvalise katkestamise asjus). esimene ja viimane tegevusala olid põhjusteks, miks kõrgema profiiliga sufražetid (perekond Pankhurstid) ta hiljem ära põlgasid ja maha salgasid. ei läinud nende renomeega kokku selline asi.
targaks sain küll ja huvitav oli ka, aga ikkagi mul oli tunne, et oleks saanud ka paremini toimetada ja selgemalt kirjutada selle raamatu.
April 12, 2019
A powerful, intense and thought provoking read. This is a book I am glad to have read. It details the life of Kitty in amazing detail, with passages from Kitty's own autobiography bringing her voice to the forefront. It also goes into other historical events to give context to kitty's life, thoughts and actions, meaning you really start to feel you know Kitty.
The chapters given over to the violence Kitty and other suffragettes carried out are very well written. They are factual and honest, but Riddell also gives room to ask a very important question - is it right to support and celebrate a movement that was so violent? Today we would label this movement as terrorism, and yet much of what happened in the suffragette movement has been scrubbed out of history. I have always been an ardent Feminist and admirer of the strong, brave women who ensured awful things like force feeding and male brutality in their fight towards equality. However, this book has given me the information and facts to admit that while I do still admire their strength and will to stand up for what is right, this movement was dangerous. It is eye opening, thought provoking and a gripping read.
I am glad I know Kitty's story.
The chapters given over to the violence Kitty and other suffragettes carried out are very well written. They are factual and honest, but Riddell also gives room to ask a very important question - is it right to support and celebrate a movement that was so violent? Today we would label this movement as terrorism, and yet much of what happened in the suffragette movement has been scrubbed out of history. I have always been an ardent Feminist and admirer of the strong, brave women who ensured awful things like force feeding and male brutality in their fight towards equality. However, this book has given me the information and facts to admit that while I do still admire their strength and will to stand up for what is right, this movement was dangerous. It is eye opening, thought provoking and a gripping read.
I am glad I know Kitty's story.
June 20, 2018
Amazing feminist history
This is quite simply put one of the most accessible and yet academically comprehensive feminist histories to have ever be written. History should not be sanitised, and in Death in Ten minutes Dr Riddell explores not only the life of Kitty Marion, but the history of 2 major social movements for change in the 20th century.
I look forward to reading more of Dr Ridells work and can only thank her for opening my eyes to the past of the movement i have supported for most of my adult life.
This is quite simply put one of the most accessible and yet academically comprehensive feminist histories to have ever be written. History should not be sanitised, and in Death in Ten minutes Dr Riddell explores not only the life of Kitty Marion, but the history of 2 major social movements for change in the 20th century.
I look forward to reading more of Dr Ridells work and can only thank her for opening my eyes to the past of the movement i have supported for most of my adult life.
December 13, 2019
Kitty Marion’s life was really interesting but the organization of the book was a bit of a mess. Very repetitive in parts and too much was filtered through the author’s interpretation; more extensive quotes from Kitty’s autobiography would have been helpful. Generally, the author was way too visible in this book - her interpretations, her opinions - and I found that distracting and not of interest. But the story of the violence of the suffragette movement in England was very interesting. Someone else said it reads like a dissertation that’s been spruced up for publication and I agree.
June 15, 2018
(At the time that I bought this book, I had to do so online through AbeBooks.com -- it appears it has only been published in the UK, so far.)
A fascinating bit of history that I was entirely unaware of. Did you know suffragettes planted bombs and committed arson? Did you know they were arrested, went on hunger strikes, and were force fed? That they were just released from jail if their health got too bad due to hunger strikes?
This book is full of amazing historical details. Unfortunately, the writing gets a bit muddled up here and there, getting in the way of a good story. Some threads are picked up and followed. Others are not. The author speculates as to why this history has been whitewashed, but never comes up with a satisfying answer. Some chapters feel clunky and jumbled. The work comes across best when the author relates history in a straightforward manner. But sometimes she can't help but skip ahead or relate events from the past for context. Sometimes I appreciated this, other times it got in the way of the story. Where history gets vague, sometimes the author doesn't admit to it.
Kitty Marion is fascinating. Her life is amazing. A suffragette, an advocate for birth control. But some details feel like they're totally missing, and the author never even speculates. Like how about this one: did Marion die a virgin? Did she ever have sex? Do we know? Were the assaults she suffered enough to turn her off sex for life? But then why would she push for sex education and birth control? Was she having affairs out of wedlock? (Presumably none of these questions can be answered because none of this is documented anywhere. But to not even raise the questions seems weird.)
What the author does provide is amazing. I actually found myself doing additional research through newspaper archives to find out more about "suffragette outrages" as the papers called them. But I wanted so much more. Kitty Marion's political activities are here, but her personal life feels like it's missing. Maybe all she had were politics?
This glowing review of mine is being too hard. This is a great book and very enjoyable. I have recommended it to multiple people, and found the author on twitter and followed her.
Well, I actually looked for the author on twitter because I wanted to ask her: did the suffragette bombs ever kill anyone? This is another question her book steps around carefully, without ever tackling head on. I found that strange too.
The author does admit there's something uncomfortable about feminist terrorism. She even draws parallels between Harvey Weinstein and Kitty Marion's own struggles (with men and the entertainment industry). But what are we to think of women who blow up buildings and commit arson? The author admits it makes her uncomfortable, but I wonder if that lack of comfort made her reluctant to speculate in certain areas. Like the big one: did suffragettes kill people? Did they go too far?
And maybe the toughest question, which the author would never dare ask in a million years: should modern feminists be building bombs? Are we modern folk too squeamish to do what needs doing? Should someone have blown up Harvey Weinstein's house (you know, without actually killing him, maybe)?
A fascinating bit of history that I was entirely unaware of. Did you know suffragettes planted bombs and committed arson? Did you know they were arrested, went on hunger strikes, and were force fed? That they were just released from jail if their health got too bad due to hunger strikes?
This book is full of amazing historical details. Unfortunately, the writing gets a bit muddled up here and there, getting in the way of a good story. Some threads are picked up and followed. Others are not. The author speculates as to why this history has been whitewashed, but never comes up with a satisfying answer. Some chapters feel clunky and jumbled. The work comes across best when the author relates history in a straightforward manner. But sometimes she can't help but skip ahead or relate events from the past for context. Sometimes I appreciated this, other times it got in the way of the story. Where history gets vague, sometimes the author doesn't admit to it.
Kitty Marion is fascinating. Her life is amazing. A suffragette, an advocate for birth control. But some details feel like they're totally missing, and the author never even speculates. Like how about this one: did Marion die a virgin? Did she ever have sex? Do we know? Were the assaults she suffered enough to turn her off sex for life? But then why would she push for sex education and birth control? Was she having affairs out of wedlock? (Presumably none of these questions can be answered because none of this is documented anywhere. But to not even raise the questions seems weird.)
What the author does provide is amazing. I actually found myself doing additional research through newspaper archives to find out more about "suffragette outrages" as the papers called them. But I wanted so much more. Kitty Marion's political activities are here, but her personal life feels like it's missing. Maybe all she had were politics?
This glowing review of mine is being too hard. This is a great book and very enjoyable. I have recommended it to multiple people, and found the author on twitter and followed her.
Well, I actually looked for the author on twitter because I wanted to ask her: did the suffragette bombs ever kill anyone? This is another question her book steps around carefully, without ever tackling head on. I found that strange too.
The author does admit there's something uncomfortable about feminist terrorism. She even draws parallels between Harvey Weinstein and Kitty Marion's own struggles (with men and the entertainment industry). But what are we to think of women who blow up buildings and commit arson? The author admits it makes her uncomfortable, but I wonder if that lack of comfort made her reluctant to speculate in certain areas. Like the big one: did suffragettes kill people? Did they go too far?
And maybe the toughest question, which the author would never dare ask in a million years: should modern feminists be building bombs? Are we modern folk too squeamish to do what needs doing? Should someone have blown up Harvey Weinstein's house (you know, without actually killing him, maybe)?
May 6, 2018
This book is a must read for everyone. The title refers to a note left on a canisters with explosive material inside. This book highlights the extreme measures these women were willing to go too to fight for their rights and why they have been hidden from history for so long. It makes you rethink about all you know about suffrage and think again. Kitty MArion who this book is about had a struggle from childhood and her life as she grew up influenced what she was to become. To me she was a determined and inspirational women like so many who we don’t know about who’s stories should be told but have been erased by the gentle historical facts they want us to know. These women should not be forgotten, we should remember the Pankhursts but we should get to know their companions who fought in the shadows also for them and every women in society. I’m not saying what they did was right but maybe it was necessary to be heard in a language that would stand out although you could say in a way it harmed their cause. As the author says at the end of the book history should always be questioned. I will be seeing the author speak soon and I’m very interested to hear about this story from her and ask questions as those who read this I’m sure will come away wanting to know more and rethink this part of history
May 15, 2021
I really loved this look into the life of kitty Marion. I really appreciate the way that this peels back the complicated layers of humanity. So often history wants to put everyone in boxes of good and evil. A right side a wrong side. This very much shows a side of the suffragettes that has so often been undersold downplayed and deliberately erased. This very much explores the murky grey areas that the majority of rebellion resides in- where is the line on how far you’ll go for your rights. What happens when a group has a common goal but different reasons for why they join and different ideas of how to achieve their goals...The motivations of one woman and how they both intersected and completely contradicted the ideas of the suffrage movement and how that led to her erasure from history. A look at sexual liberation in a time we’re often told there was none. How the lives of the middle class and working class women meant different goal posts for liberation...There’s so much packed into this and I found myself experiencing every emotion. Ultimately this is a story about the tenacity and metal of this woman, and offers a new perspective on a subject which can, at times, feel done to death.
February 24, 2019
Kitty Marion was allegedly a member of the improbably named Young Hot Bloods, a super-secret group of young radical suffragettes who were recruited to roam across Britain bombing (using pipe bombs) and setting fire to targets chosen by the Pankhurst family. Kitty Marion was born in 1871 in Germany. By the time she became a radical suffragette, she was in her forties. She was arrested several times over the course of her suffragette activities and force fed more than 200 times according to Riddell. Then at the outbreak of WWI, she emigrated to the US to avoid the anti-German sentiment in England.
Riddell would have us believe that every bombing and every arson that occurred in Britain during this period can be attributed to the radical suffragettes despite other radical groups protesting Britain’s rule over their countries, think in terms of Ireland and India. She uses material written by Kitty Marion a dozen years after the fact and seems to accept everything Marion wrote about events to be the truth because she doesn’t give any indication that she verified the writings to be truthful.
This reads like a thesis that’s been revised to make it appeal to mainstream readers.
Riddell would have us believe that every bombing and every arson that occurred in Britain during this period can be attributed to the radical suffragettes despite other radical groups protesting Britain’s rule over their countries, think in terms of Ireland and India. She uses material written by Kitty Marion a dozen years after the fact and seems to accept everything Marion wrote about events to be the truth because she doesn’t give any indication that she verified the writings to be truthful.
This reads like a thesis that’s been revised to make it appeal to mainstream readers.
March 12, 2021
Interesting reading. I had no idea that the suffragettes were so violent. They smashed windows, cut telephone and telegraph wires, were involved in arson, chemical attacks, sent poisoned packages, made and set off pipe bombs across England. Terrorist activity. The violence in this women’s movement has been airbrushed through history and sanitized so much that most people don’t know what it took to win this war for women’s rights. And it was some of the suffragettes themselves who wanted this part of the story buried. They wanted their demands met but wanted their members to be thought of as respectable, so the work and suffering of many was whitewashed. Many of the women along with Kitty Marion were caught and sent to prison multiple times. But these women persevered for what they believed in and because of them I am able to enjoy rights that I take for granted.
Of course I've heard and read about fighting for the right to vote and sexual freedom but this book makes the struggle real. It was a hard won battle. It definitely enhanced my knowledge and understanding of both the suffrage and birth control movements.
Of course I've heard and read about fighting for the right to vote and sexual freedom but this book makes the struggle real. It was a hard won battle. It definitely enhanced my knowledge and understanding of both the suffrage and birth control movements.
November 8, 2020
DNF, so boring. It’s not really a biography of Kitty Marion, pages go by without her being mentioned. It focuses too much on setting the scene of Kitty’s life and times that it would be better billed as an account of suffragette terrorism. Riddled with typos and relying so heavily on quotes that it feels like something written by an undergrad. Of course I am grateful to the women of this movement for the vote I have today, but it was very difficult to reconcile some of their more extreme actions with a struggle for equality. Couldn’t face wasting any more time on it.
August 24, 2019
Wow! Such an incredible insight into the suffragette movement AND the birth control movement! Riddell wrote it very well. I was moved by how relevant the things Kitty was fighting for, still are.
How many more women were side-lined by the Pankhurts because they didn't agree with their view on sex?
How many more women were side-lined by the Pankhurts because they didn't agree with their view on sex?
June 29, 2018
One of the most excellent history books I've read lately. It is impeccably researched, it opens up a side of history I had NO idea about, and makes a pressing case for why this story should be told NOW.
May 28, 2018
Well written biography of the radical suffragette and birth control advocate. Does a great job of explaining her life and talking about why her story had been forgotten.
June 3, 2018
I am so grateful this book has been written. Long live Kitty Marion!
June 18, 2019
Eye opening history of the suffragette movement. Goes beyond the respectable history to look at the sometimes extreme lengths suffragettes went to in order to get the vote.
February 9, 2020
Eye opening and absorbing! My first non-fiction read about the suffragette movement and I loved it.
July 8, 2023
This is a very engaging, readable book focusing on a fascinating, complicated woman. This story certainly opened my eyes to the history of the suffragettes; whilst reading it I recalled being taught about them in a one-off lesson in history whilst in high school, where the suffragettes were reduced to chaining themselves to railings and we were told it was the suffragists writing letters to Parliament who achieved real change. I knew before reading this that the truth was more complicated, and deeper, than that, but I hadn’t realised how violent and destructive the suffragette campaign was at its height.
That is the biggest strength of this book; the argument it makes about the sanitisation of the suffragette cause, and later the birth control movement, is compelling and interesting. I also enjoyed the focus on Kitty Marion’s upbringing and that she was not from a middle class background, and how it explored the impact that had on her activism and the attitudes that were shown towards her by other suffragettes. In addition, the book ending on Kitty Marion’s legacy, the conflict between her mission and the morals of the actions took to achieve it, as well as her essential ‘abandonment’ by other suffragettes and activists, was very effective and thought-provoking.
That said, I did think there were parts of the book that rambled; parts of it felt more like an overview of women’s suffrage, and sometimes it felt like the author was crowbarring in other topics that weren’t quite relevant. Sometimes the argument was watered down a bit and, occasionally, it veered a bit into a ‘girl powery’ tone that I found a bit cloying.
But on the whole this was a very solidly-written and compelling book; I really felt like I learned something from it and Kitty Marion’s legacy is certainly one that should be more widely-known.
Content Notes:
Warnings: .
That is the biggest strength of this book; the argument it makes about the sanitisation of the suffragette cause, and later the birth control movement, is compelling and interesting. I also enjoyed the focus on Kitty Marion’s upbringing and that she was not from a middle class background, and how it explored the impact that had on her activism and the attitudes that were shown towards her by other suffragettes. In addition, the book ending on Kitty Marion’s legacy, the conflict between her mission and the morals of the actions took to achieve it, as well as her essential ‘abandonment’ by other suffragettes and activists, was very effective and thought-provoking.
That said, I did think there were parts of the book that rambled; parts of it felt more like an overview of women’s suffrage, and sometimes it felt like the author was crowbarring in other topics that weren’t quite relevant. Sometimes the argument was watered down a bit and, occasionally, it veered a bit into a ‘girl powery’ tone that I found a bit cloying.
But on the whole this was a very solidly-written and compelling book; I really felt like I learned something from it and Kitty Marion’s legacy is certainly one that should be more widely-known.
Content Notes:
Warnings: .
February 24, 2025
Fantastic insight in to the life of a lesser known suffragette - imprisoned 10 times , force fed over 200 times - her story reminds us why we need to vote !
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