Sub-titled 'The Fall and Rise of Women in Film', this fascinating polemic is a powerful and sobering page turner, peppered with humour. It is a call to arms from Empire magazine's Helen O'Hara who explores women's roles both in front of and behind the camera since the birth of Hollywood, and how those roles are reflected within wider society. Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights. With no rules in place to stop them, there were many women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Yet despite the work of early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner, Mable Normand, Mary Pickford and Alice Guy-Blaché, it soon came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty, but refused to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries ? until now. The tide has finally begun to turn and a new generation of women in front of and behind the camera are making waves in the industry and shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens. Helen O'Hara reveals the women largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story in her encyclopaedic, illuminating and passionate book. Her themes include how women fell silent before sound, how the auteur theory twisted film, movie brats and the fake gaze, and how to end the pay gap. 354pp.

'Was it the bourbon or the dye fumes that made the pink walls quiver like vaginal lips?' Greeted as shocking, daring and scandalous on publication in 1922, the swirl of bourbon, dyed blonde hair and vaginal lips is audacious, but also feminist camp, and writing which moved with invention and forcefulness into a new field like other outlaw writers Jean Genet and William S. Burroughs. Turning wine vomit into glittering burgundy ribbon, as in 'Pig's head dropped lower. She gagged and a long line of glittering burgundy ribboned down the stairwell.' Set in the San Francisco of the early 90s, of the Lusty Lady, like all of Steinke's novels, this has been lauded for its 'gorgeous prose'. Jesse is a 29 year old adrift in San Francisco's demi-monde of sexually ambitious, drug-taking outsiders, desperately trying to sustain a connection with her bisexual boyfriend. She becomes caretaker and confidante to Madame Pig, a grotesque, besotted recluse. Jesse also meets Madison, Pig's daughter or lover or both, who uses others' desires for her own purposes, and who leads Jesse into a world beyond all boundaries. An intensely erotic story of one woman's sexual and psychological odyssey, and a modern cult classic. The New York Times said, 'Hallucinatory, dystopian... A disturbing, poisonous fable.' 180pp, paperback.

'It is a beautiful story of personal triumph over toxic nonsense of religious homophobia.' - Nicky Campbell. Vicky Beeching began writing songs for the church in her teens and by 30 she was a household name in churches on both sides of the Atlantic. But this poster girl for evangelical Christianity lived with an inner battle - she was gay. She knew if she ever spoke about her identity it would cost her everything. But despite losing so much she gained far more, she was finally able to live from a place of wholeness, vulnerability and authenticity and found peace and became a champion for others, fighting for LGBT equality in the church and beyond. She urges people to celebrate diversity, live authentically and become 'undivided'. As Steve Jobs said in 2005 'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice... Have courage.' This book may not be just about sexual identity, but also of broader mental health issues, if you are on the autistic spectrum, always known you are trans but never dared tell anyone, fear chasing your dreams and keeping things private because it feels safer and less embarrassing. Time to share with the brave young woman. 288pp, paperback.

The film The Seven Year Itch precipitated Marilyn into her stratospheric status as a sex symbol, but according to this author, a lifelong Marilyn fan, it was also paradoxically the film that gave Marilyn the confidence to assert herself against the studio system and to establish herself as a businesswoman with a keen interest in contracts and finance. By the time she made Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn was bored of her dumb blonde persona and seems to have married baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in order to get out of starring in The Girl in Pink Tights. When she landed The Seven Year Itch everything changed. The film fatally damaged her relationship with her second husband DiMaggio, who was unable to cope with the iconic image of Marilyn with her skirts blowing up around her. This was in spite of the fact that in her early career as a model Marilyn had posed for nude photographs, dividing opinion then and now as to whether this was a bold assertive act by a woman who needed to make her own living or a regrettable capitulation to a male agenda. Subsequent shows like There's No Business Like Show Business still failed to satisfy Marilyn, who let it be known she would like to star in films based on Dostoevsky. Abuse of women was widespread in the film industry and in 1955 she left her contract with 20th century Fox to start her own production company. At this time she also became involved with the Actors' Studio which taught Method acting, immersing yourself in every detail of a character, and the differences in their approach was at the root of the conflict between Marilyn and Laurence Olivier when they starred together in 1956 in The Sleeping Prince. 302pp, photos in black and white and colour.

The Women's Studies Group (WSG) was formed 35 years ago to engage with all aspects of women's lives over almost two centuries, and within two years of its foundation it had members in 19 countries worldwide. This lively collection of 14 essays ranges over the whole period and a fascinating variety of topics. The 16th century nine-days' queen Lady Jane Grey was the centre of a circle of Protestant reformers, but as was customary at the time, Michelangelo Florio's dedication of his book to Lady Jane foregrounds her male relatives, evoking her role as an intermediary with influential men such as her father, the Duke of Suffolk. In a discussion of Fertility, Aphrodisiacs and Sexual Pleasure in Early Modern England, Jennifer Evans draws on the anxieties of Samuel Pepys and his wife to support the conclusion that aphrodisiacs at this time were considered to be a remedy, with sexual pleasure associated with conception. Gillian Williamson examines how the 18th century Gentleman's Magazine shifted the meaning of gentlemanliness to a more self-generated model, and how this in turn influenced definitions of femininity. Sarah Oliver writes about female sexual agency in the 18th century novel, covering the rape theme in Richardson's Clarissa and Eliza Haywood's best-selling Love in Excess, and finding in conclusion that Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney destabilises the view that a master's sexual abuse of a female servant is acceptable. Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland ventures into the world of opera with the rivalry between prima donnas in the Pathetic and Virtuosic styles. In "Better than the Men" Peter Radford discusses women's speed, strength and endurance in sport, in which there was widespread participation in the 18th century, particularly running, and also their strength as hard labourers in the coal and other industries. 224pp, photos.

Women's lives were transformed during the 100 years between 1850 and 1950. In 1850 a married woman was not legally entitled to own property or assets, and had to hand everything over to her husband, but by 1950 she could graduate from university and enter most professions, retaining control of her own earnings whatever her circumstances. This book about women's emancipation focuses on the women of Plymouth, from the six women MPs during this period, including Nancy Astor who was the first female MP, to the mother of six and wife of an unco-operative husband who informed a survey, "I haven't any outdoor clothes so I chat to neighbours and sit on the back step mending and darning". The Ladies' National Association, originally formed to combat the humiliating treatment of prostitutes, was active in Plymouth particularly in the Nonconformist and Quaker communities. Domestic abuse was a common problem, and in 1923 women were finally allowed to petition for divorce. Overcrowding was a problem and 5,000 people, mainly women, regularly used the public washhouses for washing and drying laundry. By the 1890s there were women's suffrage groups in every town throughout the country, but there was also a vociferous anti-suffrage lobby. Women were active in philanthropic causes and in late 19th century Plymouth there were four women guardians of the local workhouse, though unfortunately they were voted off the board when they refused to allow the children to go to the pantomime. In 1918 many women gave up their jobs to returning soldiers, but the potentiality for independence had been established. 202pp, paperback, photos.

Sylvia Beach was a trailblazing publisher, 'They couldn't get Ulysses and they couldn't get a drink', who founded a bookshop in Paris in 1919 which is so much more than a bookshop to this day. 'My loves were Adrienne Monnier, James Joyce and Shakespeare and Company' about the novels she single-handedly published when the custodians of morality (or men) censored it as obscene in England and America. For her, books opened the doors to freedom, shaped her thinking and feelings and gave her courage to rebel. Many lesbians who contributed to the modernist revolution chose their own names - Gluck, Radclyffe Hall, Bryher (the second subject of this quadruple biography), Genêt, HD, Colette and Renée Vivien - all breaking from patriarchy and from being the property of men. Bryher felt trapped in the wrong body and even as a child she viewed her birth gender as a trick, a mistake, and saw herself as a boy. She became a patron of modernism and the rock and saviour of her partner the poet HD, Hilda Doolittle, and funded the Contact Publishing Company in Paris, supported James Joyce and his family with a monthly allowance, gave money to Sylvia Beach, and subsidised Margaret Anderson's Little Review in New York. She financed experimental films and founded Close-Up, the first film magazine in English. She built a Bauhaus-style home in Switzerland and supported the emerging psychoanalytical movement in Vienna, funding Freud and other Jewish intellectuals hounded by the Nazis. Natalie Barney was a society hostess and the main business of her life involved lots of sex. Modernism in art upended 19th century rules of narrative and form and codes of conduct for sexual exchange. Natalie was remarkable for her exuberant commitment to lesbian life: 'My queerness is not a vice, is not deliberate, and harms no one.' She met her last amour on a bench by the sea in Nice when she was 80. She was very rich and felt entitled; disinhibited, she did not stall at taking off all her clothes in or out of doors, and no pleasure was more intense for her than orgasm. And the fourth subject, Gertrude Stein, who with her partner Alice B. Toklas were at the cultural heart of Paris for four decades. An indomitable duo, they were photographed by Man Ray, painted by Picasso, featured in memoirs and were a sight to be seen. She was a ground-breaking writer. They were all women who loved women who formed a community around them in Paris and the great biographer Diana Souhami weaves together a vivid moving tapestry of life among the Modernists in pre-war Paris. A very literary biography with citations and books listed, and dozens of pictures. Pagemarker, 456pp.

The American-British historian who specialises in the medieval world of the Mediterranean and the Middle East holds MA degrees from Oxford and University College London and here tells the untold story of the trailblazing dynasty of royal women who dared to rule the Middle East. In 1187, Saladin's armies besieged the Holy City of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the Battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls, a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but if they were lucky they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants. Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent - the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood but in reality women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged allegiances, rebelled and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize upon real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing. This is a rich and fresh history and an impressive feat of research into Crusader history. 250pp, maps and illus., chapters include Morphia and the Four Princesses, Alice, the Rebel Princess of Antioch, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Constance of Antioch and Agnes and Sibylla. 2022 publication.

Sub-titled 'The Last Heroines of Britain's Greatest Generation', and with a foreword by Baroness Betty Boothroyd, the book tells the stories of 10 of the last surviving female members of Britain's greatest generation. Whether flying Spitfires to the front line, code breaking at Bletchley Park, plotting the Battle of the Atlantic, or working with Churchill, each of these women made crucial contributions to the conflict overseas, and helped to buttress the home front. Centenarian Christian Lamb, who served as a plotter in the Battle of the Atlantic, agrees that amid the horror and tragedy of the conflict, there were positive outcomes for her sex. Women were spared a great deal of burden she explains, and there was a certain amount of freedom to be had. Catherine Drummond, now aged 99, had volunteered as a wireless operator. Some of the ten women came from backgrounds of grinding poverty, while others enjoyed gilded childhoods before joining the war effort. Joy Hunter, now aged 95, had served as a secretary in Winston Churchill in the subterranean Cabinet War Rooms beneath Whitehall. 102-year-old Jaye Edwards had an airfield in Yorkshire as the base from which she worked as a pilot delivering Spitfires to the front line. The range of military roles that women were permitted to perform expanded as the war dragged on. And the war was in some ways a great level between classes as women of all social backgrounds were drafted in to help. The book opens with a story of Margaret Turner born 18th of May 1923, who, at the age of 16 when the war broke out, volunteered as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment and witnessed a lot in just the first 12 months. With a reporter's eye for detail, Lucy Fisher artfully weaves together interviews and wartime diaries and letters in a vivid oral history. 318 pages in paperback with 16 pages of colour and archive photographs of the women as youngsters and at the age they were interviewed.

England in the 15th century was dominated by the Wars of the Roses in which descendants of King Edward III struggled for power. Edward's son John of Gaunt had numerous children by two wives, and they all divided into the factions of Yorkists and Lancastrians in the next two generations. Out of this melee emerged a series of strong women who wielded great power, including the "she-wolf" Margaret of Anjou. The author of this book focuses on four women who were all accused of witchcraft as a way of reducing their power, or that of their husbands. Joan of Navarre was the second wife on the Lancastrian Henry IV, a widow who wrote encouragingly to the new king shortly after he had seized the crown from the Yorkist Richard II and lost no time in marrying him. When Henry died and his son Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt, Joan was in a difficult position as her daughter's husband had fought with the French and was killed. Henry V now plundered his stepmother Joan's vast wealth and finally brought a charge of witchcraft against her and Friar Randolph, leading to her arrest and detainment. When Henry died his son Henry VI was only an infant, and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester became Protector. Humphrey's wife, Elanor Cobham, had been his mistress until his first marriage was annulled, and her precarious position at court was strengthened by Joan of Navarre's favour, but when Humphrey lost influence over Henry VI to his great rival Cardinal Beaufort, Eleanor was tried for witchcraft and imprisoned, with Humphrey also being disgraced and possibly murdered. Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the sister-in-law of Lancastrian Henry V, became a Yorkist following her marriage to Richard Woodville and gave birth to Elizabeth Woodville, later the Queen of Yorkist Edward IV. Both woman were accused of witchcraft and exonerated. 320pp, softback, genealogical tables.