Etta Lemon

Description

Read the fascinating story of one of the greatest unsung figures of the nature conservation movement, founder of the RSPB and icon of early animal rights activism, Etta Lemon.

A heroine for our times, Etta Lemon campaigned for fifty years against the worldwide slaughter of birds for extravagantly feathered hats. Her legacy is the RSPB, grown from an all-female pressure group of 1889 with the splendidly simple pledge: Wear No Feathers.

Etta’s long battle against ‘murderous millinery’ triumphed with the Plumage Act of 1921 – but her legacy has been eclipsed by the more glamorous campaign for the vote, led by the elegantly plumed Emmeline Pankhurst.

This gripping narrative explores two formidable heroines and their rival, overlapping campaigns. Moving from the feather workers’ slums to high society, from the first female political rally to the rise of the eco-feminist, it restores Etta Lemon to her rightful place in history – the extraordinary woman who saved the birds.

ETTA LEMON was originally published in hardback in 2018 under the title of MRS PANKHURST'S PURPLE FEATHER.

'A great story of pioneering conservation.' 
KATE HUMBLE
 
‘Quite brilliant. Meticulous and perceptive. A triumph of a book.’
CHARLIE ELDER

‘Shocking and entertaining. The surprising story of the campaigning women who changed Britain.”
VIRGINIA NICHOLSON
 
‘A fascinating and moving story, vividly told.’
JOHN CAREY
 
‘A fascinating clash of two causes: rights for women and rights for birds to fly free not adorn suffragettes’ hats. An illuminating story, provocative, well-researched and brilliantly told.’
DIANA SOUHAMI

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. 

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
 '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

Additional information

Dimensions	0.875 × 5.125 × 7.75 in
Imprint	Aurum Press
Format	General Trade
ISBN-13	09780711263383
ISBN-10	0711263388
Author	Tessa Boase
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	NAT043000, SOC028000
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