International Womens Day

 

I like reading books about the lives of women.

Strong women who have bucked the trend for the period of history they lived in.

Women who made their mark.

For Women's Day I thought I would share a couple of my favourites.

Everyone has heard of the Mitford sisters but I thought I would share two books about another two sets of equally interesting sisters from very different backgrounds.

 

First is Fortune's Daughters.

This is the story of three American sisters, Jennie, Clara and Leonie Jerome.

As well as the twists and turns their lives took as they met, fell in love and married (Jennie married Randolph Churchill and was the mother of Winston) the book also charts the life long strong bond of sisterhood between them.

 

Next is A Circle of Sisters about the four Victorian MacDonald sisters. The information on the back reads as follows.....

...... as wives and mothers they made a single family of the poet of the Empire, Rudyard Kipling, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, Edward Poynter, President of the Royal Academy and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.
These four women

I read both of these a number of years ago and they have remained on my book shelves since then, I would not want to part with them. Not only because they are terrific reads but the first was a present from my dad. The front cover has the impression of his handwriting from where he wrote out the accompanying gift tag.

My last recommendation would be for Wedlock. This was a book club read which received high praise from every single member of our group, something which rarely happens. It is about a genuinely remarkable woman in Georgian Britain who married a man who abused and imprisoned her and how she finally escaped. I can guarantee without a shadow of a doubt you won't be disappointed if you do read it.