The Century Girls: The Final Word from the Women Who've Lived the Past Hundred Years of British History

This book has a simple surmise to tell the story of the 100 years since the franchise was extended to women by taking 6 women who were born at or before that date and telling their stories. The author takes the opportunity to put their individual experiences into the context of the history of the nation, so that it is a broader book than just the biography of 6 women. But what interesting women she found! They really make it by their variety. Two were born else where (British India & Guyana), some were born into an elite, others were at the bottom of the social scale. Some followed a well trodden path, others broke the mould. They have such varied experiences of the same events that it makes you wonder how you can possibly lump "old show more people" into a single bucket. These women all come across as individuals. They are a product of their times - the author uses a quote from Napoleon, which in essence says to understand a (wo)man you need to understand the world when they were young. We are made by our experiences in our early decades. For these women that was a pretty turbulent period, the roaring 20s, the depression, the rise of social unrest and WW2 all featured in their first quarter century. When you think of it like that, they are a special set. show less

I think I enjoyed this book more than the rest of my reading group. But I listened to the audio and I think that helped a lot. The group complained that they couldn't remember who was who a lot of the time. The different accents in the audiobook helped me a lot with that, although even I had a hard time remembering sometimes. I am not usually a fan of biography. I like history though and so I enjoyed this quite a lot.