Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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6 July 2003: Seven of the ten novels on the weekly British...
Writer or writing item
6 July 2003
Seven of the ten novels on the weekly British list of bestsellers feature[d] as a key element of their plotting the abduction, murder, rape or torture of a young child.
Adams, Tim. “Read ’em and weep”. The Observer, 13 July 2003, pp. Review section 1 - 2.
2
Adams, Tim. “Read ’em and weep”. The Observer, 13 July 2003, pp. Review section 1 - 2.
1-2
26 September 1934: The Queen Mary left Southampton on her maiden...
National or international item
26 September 1934
The Queen Mary left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
223-4
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
378
1976: A step was taken towards medical use of Magnetic...
Building and people item
1976
A step was taken towards medical use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging when Peter Mansfield
of Nottingham University
for the first time published the results of a MRI scan: of a human finger.
Smith, Alexandra. “Life-changing knowledge highlights from a half-century of university research”. Guardian Weekly, 14–20 July 2006, p. 29.
29
3 September 1658: Oliver Cromwell died and Richard Cromwell...
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
425
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
44
Late October 1973: Britain's Royal Commission on the Constitution...
National or international item
Late October 1973
Britain's Royal Commission on the Constitution published its findings (known from its latest chair as the Kilbrandon Report).
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(29 October 1973): 3
1821: The outstanding business woman Eleanor Coade...
Building and people item
1821
The outstanding business woman Eleanor Coade
died, leaving a substantial self-made fortune to charities (including the British and Foreign Bible Society
) and to individuals, two-thirds of them women.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680-1780. University of California Press, 1996.
144, 271n49-50
1 February 1930: The Times published its first crossword puzzle,...
Building and people item
1 February 1930
The Times published its first crossword puzzle, seventeen years after the first crossword appeared in the New York World.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
373
Winchester, Simon. “Roget and his Brilliant, Unrivalled, Malign, and Detestable Thesaurus”. Atlantic Monthly, Vol.
287
, No. 5, May 2001, pp. 53-75.
72
1790: Newspaper sales in England totalled more...
Building and people item
1790
Newspaper sales in England totalled more than 16 million.
Suarez, Michael F. “The Business of Literature: The Book Trade in England from Milton to Blake”. A Companion to Literature from Milton to Blake, edited by David Womersley, Blackwell, 2000, pp. 131-47.
139
29 January 1849: The National Parliamentary and Financial...
SF
's career as a feminist poet began when she was very young, in the late seventeenth century, and continued into the eighteenth century. Her letters, although they were printed, seem not to have been...
1 December 1969: The Calthorpe Nursing Home opened in Birmingham...
Building and people item
1 December 1969
The Calthorpe Nursing Home
opened in Birmingham as Britain's only clinic dealing solely with abortions.
Hindell, Keith, and Madeleine Simms. Abortion Law Reformed. Peter Owen, 1971.
217
Hordern, Anthony. Legal Abortion: The English Experience. Pergamon, 1971.
181
By 1895: 875 women served on Boards of Guardians....
National or international item
By 1895
875 women served on Boards of Guardians.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
284
29 February 1724: Daniel Defoe anonymously published The Fortunate...
Writer or writing item
29 February 1724
Daniel Defoe
anonymously published The Fortunate Mistress, or . . . Lady Roxana, his second fictional autobiography of a woman living on her wits.
Moore, John Robert. A Checklist of the Writings of Daniel Defoe. Indiana University Press, 1960.
185
Writer or writing
Author profile
Judith Cowper Madan
JCM
(formerly Judith Cowper), like almost all of her relations, was a frequent writer of occasional poetry. Most of her surviving poems, and all the major ones, date from about 1720-8, that is from either...
Writer or writing
Author profile
Timberlake Wertenbaker
TW
, an American-born European who writes for the British stage, is an experimental dramatist, adaptor, translator, and radio dramatist. Central topics in her work are the efforts of individuals, particularly women: pursuing quests, seeking...
1870: A new medical journal, the American Journal...
Building and people item
1870
A new medical journal, the American Journal of Dermatology and Syphilography, connected skin and sexuality; the linkage cast suspicion on young women seeking treatment for acne.
This eventually became The Archives of Dermatology and...
August 1940: A Ministry of Information pamphlet appeared...
National or international item
August 1940
A Ministry of Information
pamphlet appeared under the title Loss of Eden. A Cautionary Tale. Re-issued in 1941 more openly called If Hitler
Comes, it dealt with the possible scenario of successful Nazi
May 1932: F. R. Leavis launched his critical periodical...
Writer or writing item
May 1932
F. R. Leavis
launched his critical periodical Scrutiny as a quarterly published at Cambridge; it ran until October 1953. His wife, Q. D. Leavis
, was co-editor, though not named in the masthead.
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.
3 July 1883: Franz Kafka, novelist, was born in Prague,...
Writer or writing item
3 July 1883
Franz Kafka
, novelist, was born in Prague, Bohemia.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
April-August 1870: The Siege of Devonport was undertaken by...
National or international item
April-August 1870
The Siege of Devonport was undertaken by national leaders and members of the movement to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts.
Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. Cambridge University Press, 1980.
151-70
11 November 1937: The BBC made its first television broadcast...
National or international item
11 November 1937
The BBC
made its first television broadcast of the Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
373
1 October 1985: New Zealander Janet Frame issued the last...
Writer or writing item
1 October 1985
New Zealander Janet Frame
issued the last of three volumes of autobiography, The Envoy from Mirror City; the first came out in 1982. These books finally spread her fame and quashed her reputation as...
1789: The price of wheat in Britain and Ireland...
Building and people item
1789
The price of wheat in Britain and Ireland reached an unprecedented high of 45 shillings a hundredweight.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
158
A hundredweight (a measure of 112 pounds weight or one cwt) must be meant here, not a quarter.
August 1995: Valerie Gillies wrote and published the Will...
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.