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In You Are Free (Even if You Don't Feel Like It) award-winning campaigner Hope Virgo opens up about her own journey with mental health and illness. With powerful honesty, she relates her experiences from being sexually abused in her youth group when she was just 13 and admitted to a mental health hospital with a failing heart at 17, to feeling like she was ready to end it all at 28 – when a new hope found her after a stranger told her about Jesus.Raw and relatable, this is more than a memoir, as Hope draws on her own story to offer advice and guidance to those living and struggling with their own mental health and wellbeing. Sharing what she has learned, Hope candidly lays out how she worked through her rage, hurt, disappointments and doubts to help others dealing with the ongoing stigma and shame that still follows mental health issues around.She also reveals the power that the Christian faith has had in her life, looking at how mental and spiritual care go hand in hand, especially in the face of confusion that sometimes God chooses not to heal us – or at least, not in the way we expect.Featuring interviews with Rachel Hughes, Matt Hogg, Zeke Rink, Jemimah Haley and many more, You Are Free (Even If You Don't Feel Like It) is a thought-provoking and heartfelt self-help book that will speak to anyone who has struggled with their mental health, in the church and outside of it, and to anyone interested in how the Christian faith can offer hope even in the darkest of times.A testimony both to the resilience of the human spirit and to the power of God, Hope's is an understanding voice for all those in the midst of their struggles, offering support and encouragement that they too will find their way on to the path towards healing.

Eighteenth-century women told their life stories through making. With its compelling stories of women's material experiences and practices, Material Lives offers a new perspective on eighteenth-century production and consumption. Genteel women's making has traditionally been seen as decorative, trivial and superficial. Yet their material archives, forged through fabric samples, watercolours, dressed prints and dolls'garments, reveal how women used the material culture of making to record and navigate their lives.Material Lives positions women as'makers'in a consumer society. Through fragments of fabric and paper, Dyer explores an innovative way of accessing the lives of otherwise obscured women. For researchers and students of material culture, dress history, consumption, gender and women's history, it offers a rich resource to illuminate the power of needles, paintbrushes and scissors.

On her return in late 1936, Anna is reunited with her parents and sister as she and her husband, together with her sister Mary Ann and brother-in-law Harry, try to help the village during the depression. There are high points and low but as she matures, she survives most things that life throws at her. When, at the beginning of another war, she is separated from husband, brother-in-law, son and nephew, she becomes increasingly resourceful, helped by her parents and others, and at the end of the war a final twist takes her story full circle.

Das vorliegende Buch ist nicht für Frauen und Mädchen insbesondere oder gar ausschließlich geschrieben, sondern für jedermann. Diese Erzählung will ein Stück Menschenleben zeigen, ganz unverfälscht und unverhüllt und so gründlich, wie der enge Rahmen eines solchen Buches es immer gestatten mochte. Der Leser soll selbst die Kräfte sehen, die am Werk sind, die Gesetze ahnen, die in der Wirklichkeit gelten. Weil es aber ein Frauenleben ist, das sich hier vor uns entfaltet auf dem düster-ernsten Hintergrund schwerer Völkerkämpfe, darum wendet sich das Buch doch ganz besonders an die Mädchen und Frauen. Was von einer Frau verlangt werden kann, und was eine Frau leisten kann in schwerer Zeit – das muss doch bei den Frauen in erster Linie Teilnahme und Interesse finden. Den Gereiften und denen, die reif werden wollen, ist diese Geschichte empfohlen von der Unerbittlichkeit des Lebens und von der Unüberwindlichkeit echten, schlichten Heldentums. Der Leser wird es nicht bereuen, Florence Nightingale kennen gelernt zu haben.

This is a detective story, cultural history and love story. It tells a tale of unconventionality, multifarious creativity, and a quest for new ways of living and loving amidst the complexities of Interwar Britain. For Francesca Allinson life and making art were synonymous, though both were cut short. Her story captures the topsy-turvy quality of a life singularly led; it shows how biography too gets turned upside down in the making -- how the story of a single individual can throw the literary and social perspective of the period into relief. Helen Southworth's initial goal was to discover how Francesca's fictional autobiography, A Childhood, made it onto Leonard and Virginia Woolf's The Hogarth Press list in 1937. The result was to be immediately drawn in to the company of prominent artistic figures of the period. Writer, musicologist, puppeteer and pacifist, British-German Jewish Allinson (19021945) published with the Woolfs, duelled with Ralph Vaughan Williams over the origins of folk song and was psychoanalysed by Adrian Stephen, younger brother of Virginia. Her connections register the cultural ferment of the Interwar years: a rich collaboration and unconsummated romance with homosexual composer Michael Tippett; an affair with Arts League of Service founder Judy Wogan; a friendship with designer Enid Marx; and an infatuation with poet Den Newton, 18 years her junior. Her life of promise, tragically cut short by suicide by drowning in 1945, is an eerie echo of Virginia Woolf's suicide. Allinson's story spans the Twentieth Century, closing with Tippett weeping on stage at the Wigmore Hall during a 1992 performance of The Heart's Assurance, the song cycle he dedicated to Francesca's memory forty years earlier. In parallel, Allinson's own A Childhood makes a second journey: a gift for a young woman living in recently liberated Belgium in 1942, the book comes alive again when she transforms it into an artist's book.

The biography of Margaret Tyler remains speculative. It is known that she served the Howard family (Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk) in some capacity. Her level of education has been described as'amazing'for a woman who was outside of the aristocracy and possibly a middle-class servant. Her translation (published 1579 or 1580) of Diego Ortún]ez de Calahorra's romance, Espejo de principes y cavalleros, Part I, from the original Spanish, marks not only a notable moment in book history but also the beginning of the popularity and availability of continental romance in England. Tyler was the first woman to publish a romance in England and the first English translator to work from the original Spanish. Because of the negative association of women with romance (considered a masculine domain) and the general cultural restrictions on female authorship, Tyler's bold defence of her translation in the dedication and preface is remarkable, and as it is the earliest Englishwoman's defence of women's literary work, it has sometimes earned her the title of the first English feminist.

The one work traditionally attributed to Susan DuVerger is her Admirable Events (1639) - a translation of a collection of novellas by Jean Pierre Camus, a French Catholic Bishop - which she dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria. There is some evidence however to suggest that she was the author of several other works. What little is known of her is based on her literary production - various factors suggest that she was an English Catholic who spent time in exile in France during the Civil War.

For fans of Downton Abbey comes an immersive historical epic about a lavish English manor and a dynasty of rich and powerful women who ruled the estate over three centuries of misbehavior, scandal, intrigue, and passion. Five miles from Windsor Castle, home of the royal family, sits the Cliveden estate. Overlooking the Thames, the mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens. Throughout its storied history, Cliveden has been a setting for misbehavior, intrigue, and passion—from its salacious, deadly beginnings in the seventeenth century to the 1960s Profumo Affair, the sex scandal that toppled the British government. Now, in this immersive chronicle, the manor's current mistress, Natalie Livingstone, opens the doors to this prominent house and lets the walls do the talking. Built during the reign of Charles II by the Duke of Buckingham, Cliveden attracted notoriety as a luxurious retreat in which the duke could conduct his scandalous affair with the ambitious courtesan Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury. In 1668, Anna Maria's cuckolded husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, challenged Buckingham to a duel. Buckingham killed Shrewsbury and claimed Anna Maria as his prize, making her the first mistress of Cliveden. Through the centuries, other enigmatic and indomitable women would assume stewardship over the estate, including Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney and illicit lover of William III, who became one of England's wealthiest women; Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the queen that Britain was promised and then denied; Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, confidante of Queen Victoria and a glittering society hostess turned political activist; and the American-born Nancy Astor, the first female member of Parliament, who described herself as an “ardent feminist” and welcomed controversy. Though their privileges were extraordinary, in Livingstone's hands, their struggles and sacrifices are universal. Cliveden weathered renovation and restoration, world conflicts and cold wars, societal shifts and technological advances. Rich in historical and architectural detail, The Mistresses of Cliveden is a tale of sex and power, and of the exceptional women who evaded, exploited, and confronted the expectations of their times.Praise for The Mistresses of Cliveden“Theatrical festivities, political jockeying and court intrigues are deftly described with a verve and attention to domestic comforts that show the author at her best.... [Livingstone's] portraits of strenuous and assertive women who resisted subjection, sometimes deploying their sexual allure to succeed, on other occasions drawing on their husband's wealth, are astute, spirited, and empathetic.”—The Wall Street Journal “Missing Downton Abbey already? This tome promises ‘three centuries of scandal, power, and intrigue'and Natalie Livingstone definitely delivers.”—Good Housekeeping “Lively... The current chatelaine—the author herself—deserves no small credit for keeping the house's legend alive.... Any of her action-filled chapters would merit a mini-series.”—The New York Times Book Review “Though the personal tales and tidbits are fascinating, and the sensational details of these women's lives will intrigue Downton Abbey devotees, the real star of the story is Cliveden.”—Booklist “Lovers of modern English history and the scandals that infiltrated upper-crust society will find much to enjoy in this work.”—Library Journal

Heir to an earldom, and wife and widow of William de Valence (half-brother of King Henry III), Joan de Valence was an important actor in the volatile political world of thirteenth-century England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Yet, astonishingly, her story of survival, perseverance, and influence has never been told until now. Joan de Valence: The Life and Influence of a Thirteenth-Century Noblewoman draws on archival research, as well as tools of historical analysis and gender studies, to peel back the layers of this remarkable noblewoman's life. From her survival of the wars between king and baronage at mid-century to her life as a widow and magnate of the realm, the story of Joan de Valance, as Mitchell argues, exemplifies the range of experiences of noblewomen during the middle ages.

This volume includes two early seventeenth-century translations of Roman Catholic books by English recusant nuns - Catherine Greenbury (a Franciscan) and Mary Percy (a Benedictine). To practise their faith on the continent both these women fled Elizabethan England where Roman Catholic practice had been outlawed under pain of severe penalty (even death). Catherine Greenbury was born at York into a wealthy upper middle-class family but left England after the death of her husband, shortly after the birth of her daughter in or around 1616. After establishing herself in Brussels in a convent dedicated to St Elizabeth, she became its first elected'Mother'in 1626. During her early years here she translated the work included in this volume - François van den Broecke's biography in Dutch of the saintly Queen Elizabeth of Portugal. A comparison of Greenbury's version with the Dutch text shows not only that the translation is very competent and faithful, but also that she takes the editorial freedom to improve the text. Lady Mary Percy, daughter of Thomas Percy the seventh Earl of Northumberland, left England for Flanders and in 1598 she founded a Benedictine convent in Brussels especially for Englishwomen. Here Mary Percy translated a 1598 French edition of Breve compendio, by the Italian Jesuit Achille Gagliardi with his student Isabella Berinzaga, a mystical handbook which guides the reader through a series of elaborately defined stages striving towards'deiformitie'- a state in which the soul is'united unto the will of God'.

This is the story of one person's life, my life to be exact. So let me take you on a wonderful journey whch I have a strong feeling you will enjoy. Along the way you will experience a whole lot of humour and also a touch of sadness, but most of all a huge amount of entertainment. Join me in meeting some wonderful people and passing through some fantastic places. Share my good times and my bad times, my laughter and my tears. My readers will relate to some of my experiences and some they will be glad that they won't.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • AN O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE #1 TERRIFIC READ • In an age of bolters—women who broke the rules and fled their marriages—one woman was the most celebrated of them all. • “Even today Lady Idina Sackville could get tongues wagging.'—NPR'Taylor Swift might count Lady Sackville among her muses. Swift's fans...have linked Idina to The Bolter, a song on the record-breaking album, The Tortured Poets Department'—TatlerIdina Sackville's relentless affairs, wild sex parties, and brazen flaunting of convention shocked high society and inspired countless writers and artists, from Nancy Mitford to Greta Garbo. But Idina's compelling charm masked the pain of betrayal and heartbreak. Now Frances Osborne explores the life of Idina, her enigmatic great-grandmother, using letters, diaries, and family legend, following her from Edwardian London to the hills of Kenya, where she reigned over the scandalous antics of the “Happy Valley Set.” Dazzlingly chic yet warmly intimate, The Bolter is a fascinating look at a woman whose energy still burns bright almost a century later.'Sackville's passion lights up the page.” —Entertainment Weekly •'An engaging, definitive final look back at those naughty people who, between the wars, took their bad behavior off to Kenya and whose upper-class delinquency became gilded with unjustified glamour.” —Financial Times • “Intoxicating.” —People

Maria Dundas was born in Papcastle (Lake District) in 1785, and after living with relatives in Richmond, she moved to Scotland where she remained until 1808. That year she sailed to India with her father, whom she had not seen for the past ten years. At this stage in her life, the travel writer was born. She then married Lieutenant Thomas Graham in India at the end of 1809 and returned home after two years. They traveled to South America, and her husband passed away during this journey. She chose to remain in South America where she met leaders of the government, prominent members of society, and British naval officers who were in the country helping to consolidate its independence from Spain. During her stay in South America (1821–1825), she wrote and published two journals, the Journal of a Residence in Chile and the Journal of a Voyage to Brazil. After her return to Britain, she also wrote and published history books for children, books on art, articles for John Murray's newspaper, the Representative, and even a treatise on botany. In Chile, one of the two Latin American countries she wrote about in 1824, Maria Graham is a well-known figure whose journal is periodically reissued, quoted, and discussed. In Brazil, the other country she visited and wrote about, Graham is known as a scholar and travel writer in academic circles, and as a gay icon in popular culture. Additionally, one of her two published journals about India is widely read in the United Kingdom and the United States today, and in all these countries, Graham's work is subject to theses, conferences, and chapters in academic publications that deal with travel writing, women's studies, or colonial studies. Maria Graham's story is as remarkable as her work, and this biography not only narrates her life but also delves into the representation she made of herself in her published and unpublished journals, diaries, memoirs, and letters. The result of her endeavours is a literary persona that appears far removed from the controversial woman that she actually was. Who is the woman behind the texts? How did she conceive them? Was she simply one of many other adventurous and articulate female authors of the nineteenth century, or did she for some reason stand apart? This book shows how she manufactured her identity at times by conforming to, challenging, or ignoring the rules of society regarding women's behaviour. She was a child of the Enlightenment in that she valued knowledge above all things, yet she flavoured her discoveries with a taste of romanticism. Her search took her to distant lands where she captured for her readers foreign cultural manifestations, exotic landscapes, and obscure religious rites; yet a reading of her work generates the impression that despite the dramatic descriptions of peoples and places, Graham's subject was, simply, herself. What we know of her story comes mainly from her own narratives, although there are significant letters to, from, and about her that round up the analysis. This biography reconstructs Maria Graham's literary image by means of significant passages of her work, memoirs, diaries, journals, and letters. The chosen texts are meant to illustrate salient features of her style and of her interaction with the prevalent ideologies of her time. The intention is to display a groundbreaking female intellectual who captured for her readers the ancient culture of India as deftly as she represented bloodthirsty bandits in the north of Italy or nascent countries in South America.

Lee unfolds the stories of six women with a cast of supporting characters such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Benjamin Franklin, Stamford Raffles and Napoleon against the grand narrative of England's 18th century empire building. This book is a meticulously researched, spellbinding tale of tragedy, transformation and triumph in the age of reason.