Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Explore Orlando
Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.
1991: Her appointment as a QC (Queens Counsel)...
Building and people item
1991
Her appointment as a QC (Queens Counsel) made Patricia Scotland
the first black woman to hold this rank.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
7 May 1937: The first successful pressurized aeroplane...
National or international item
7 May 1937
The first successful pressurized aeroplane cabin was created, allowing planes to fly higher than before.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
231
1932: The Student Christian Movement decided that...
Building and people item
1932
The Student Christian Movement
decided that masturbation caused no physical or mental harm. It began to issue advice on this basis to young people seeking help.
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
212
1 July 1847: A British government enquiry into the state...
“The Blue Books of 1847”. Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
November 2003: A painting by John Hoppner entitled Portrait...
Women writers item
November 2003
A painting by John Hoppner
entitled Portrait of a Lady as Evelina (Frances Burney
's earliest heroine, born in January 1778) sold at Sotheby
's to an unnamed private buyer for £173,600.
Sabor, Peter. “Burneyana”. Johnsonian News Letter, edited by Robert, Jr DeMaria, Vol.
lv
, No. 2, Sept. 2004, pp. 38-40.
39
Writer or writing
Author profile
Winifred Peck
During her extended career in the earlier half of the twentieth century, WP
published twenty-five books—mainly novels, with history, biography, a children's book, and two volumes of memoirs—as well as individual stories and girls' school...
1893: The Women's Co-operative Guild (WCG) held...
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
146-8
Scott, Gillian. Feminism and the Politics of Working Women: The Women’s Cooperative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. UCL Press, 1998.
76
22 June 1948: Passengers disembarked from the steamship...
National or international item
22 June 1948
Passengers disembarked from the steamship Empire Windrush at Tilbury in Essex: four hundred and ninety young men from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, most of them until recently servicemen with the RAF
.
Phillips, Mark. “Windrush—the Passengers”. BBC History, 10 Mar. 2011.
27 September 2018: A committee of the US Senate heard testimony...
Siddiqui, Sabrina et al. “Kavanaugh hearing: anger and clashes ahead of Senate committee vote”. theguardian.com, 28 Sept. 2018.
1859: Mrs Robert Cartwright published her travel...
Women writers item
1859
Mrs Robert Cartwright published her travel book Pilgrim Walks: A Chaplet of Memories, with appended poems.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
15 August 1057: Malcolm killed King Macbeth, and assumed...
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
51
By 1815: The number of capital crimes in Britain reached...
Building and people item
By 1815
The number of capital crimes in Britain reached about 225 separate offences: up by at least sixty over the last fifty years, after rising steeply even before that.
Windschuttle, Keith. The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering our Past. Encounter Books, 2000.
165
Summer 1830: In this year's elections (which followed...
National or international item
Summer 1830
In this year's elections (which followed the death of George IV
) no votes were cast in Wales and only 239 were cast in Scotland; most constituencies had a single candidate, so there was...
1895: Dr Alexander Shields of Scotland invented...
Building and people item
1895
Dr Alexander Shields
of Scotland invented the first safe milking machine, with a pulsating control device designed to simulate the sucking action of a calf.
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
268
1921: Margaret Llewelyn Davies resigned as General...
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
184, 189
Blaszak, Barbara J. The Matriarchs of England’s Cooperative Movement: A Study in Gender Politics and Female Leadership, 1883-1921. Greenwood Press, 2000.
134
1897: Samuel Butler published The Authoress of...
Writer or writing item
1897
Samuel Butler
published The Authoress of the Odyssey, a book calculated to offend the entire establishment
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
of imperial Britain with its claim that the second great character-building Greek epic had been written by a woman.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
7 May 1848: The Royal Academy exhibition presented 1474...
Building and people item
7 May 1848
The Royal Academy
exhibition presented 1474 works by 853 exhibitors; of these, only 126 works were by 77 female artists, a scant 10% of the total.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
27-8
McMaster, Juliet. That Mighty Art of Black-and-White. Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy. Ad Hoc Press, 2009.
3
22 June 1814: In a civic procession at Taunton in Somerset,...
National or international item
22 June 1814
In a civic procession at Taunton in Somerset, to mark the end of the war, six women's friendly societies marched alongside male trade and professional groups.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
237
August 1779-1783: Gibraltar sustained its longest blockade...
National or international item
August 1779-1783
Gibraltar sustained its longest blockade during its years as a British possession; writers like Mary Darwall
and Catharine Upton
chronicled this siege's acts of heroism, while Susanna Blamire
gave voice to an ordinary soldier.
Messenger, Ann. Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825). AMS Press, 1999.
143-4
December 1958: Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize...
Writer or writing item
December 1958
Boris Pasternak
was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature. He initially accepted the prize, but was quickly forced by the Soviet government to decline it.
Nobel Prize in Literature. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/.
1982: Aileen La Tourette's play Risking Night,...
Women writers item
1982
Aileen La Tourette
's play Risking Night, Testing Dreams was staged in Bristol.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
There is no record of this play receiving individual publication.
1226: Abbess Euphemia became director of a Benedictine...
Building and people item
1226
Abbess Euphemia
became director of a Benedictine monastery in Hampshire.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
107
By 1834: Amalgam, a mercury alloy, was being used...
Building and people item
By 1834
Amalgam, a mercury alloy, was being used as a material for filling teeth.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
301
March 1791: France broke off relations with the Papa...
National or international item
March 1791
France broke off relations with the Papacy.
Waldron, Mary. Lactilla, Milkwoman of Clifton: The Life and Writings of Ann Yearsley, 1753-1806. University of Georgia Press, 1996.
202
7 December 1683: Months after the execution of William, Lord...
National or international item
7 December 1683
Months after the execution of William, Lord Russell
(husband of Lady Rachel
), Algernon Sidney
met the same fate (after a search of his private papers), charged with Protestant extremism and plotting against the crown.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
