'A great story of pioneering conservation.' - Kate Humble
A heroine for our times, Etta Lemon campaigned for fifty years against the worldwide slaughter of wild birds for extravagantly feathered hats. As a young Victorian woman, Etta wrote militant letters to church-going ladies wearing feathered hats. As the pugnacious Secretary of the RSPB, she made ornithologists quake in their boots. Etta Lemon ran the long eco-campaign against the feather trade with single-minded tenacity, triumphing with the Plumage Act of 1921. She turned the tide against the insatiable fashion for feathered hats, saving countless species from extinction. In her lifetime, Etta was known as 'Mother of the Birds'.
Yet her triumphant battle against 'murderous millinery' has been eclipsed by the campaign for women's votes, led by the elegantly plumed Emmeline Pankhurst.
This gripping narrative explores two singular heroines and their rival, overlapping campaigns. Moving from the feather workers' slums to high society, from the first female political rally to the triumph of women's suffrage and the Plumage Act of 1921, it celebrates the extraordinary, untold story of Etta Lemon, the woman who saved the birds
By:
Tessa Boase
Imprint: Quarto Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780711263383
ISBN 10: 0711263388
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 17 May 2022
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Prologue vii Part 1 – Feathers 1 Alice Battershall 2 Inspector Lakeman 3 97 Lever Street 4 Women Undercover 5 ‘Crewe Factory Girl’ 6 The Skylark Part 2 – Birds 7 Young Etta 8 Young Emmeline 9 The Train Carriage 10 Of Bird-Wearing Age 11 The Tea Party 12 Emily Williamson 13 A Very Ambitious Title 14 Flight 15 Impracticable Dreamers 16 Courting the Men 17 Winifred, Duchess of Portland 18 The Crème de la Crème Part 3 – Hats 19 Dying to Get Out 20 The Millinery Detectives 21 Queen Alix 22 ‘Egret’ Bennett 23 Deeds Not Words 24 The Frontal Attack 25 Mrs Pattinson 26 The Countess Fabbricotti 27 Royal Approval 28 The ‘Suffragette’ Part 4 – Votes 29 Onto the Street 30 The Antis 31 The Feminine Arts 32 The Advice of Men 33 Maternal Weakness 34 Peak Rage 35 The Feeding Tube 36 Dumb Creation Part 5 – Power 37 At War 38 The Ballot Box 39 But What Do Women Care? 40 Etta and Emmeline: Two Portraits 41 The Coup Epilogue Notes Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Index Picture Credits
Tessa Boase read English at Oxford, and has worked as a scriptwriter, a voiceover artist and an editor at The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. As a freelance journalist she has contributed to a wide variety of publications. Her first book, The Housekeeper's Tale, was published by Aurum in 2014. She is married with children and lives between St Leonards on Sea, and Lazio, Italy.
Reviews for Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds
'Boase has done a superb job of linking her personalities, and painting vivid pictures of their life struggles and fighting techniques. This book is an unputdownable account of a forgotten campaign, and of a group of women who have been hidden from history for too long.' * Women's History Review * 'A fascinating book...packed with interesting facts. A great read for all people' * Birdwatching Magazine *
