A definitive history and anarchic celebration of the fight for women’s right to vote; ‘A huge achievement’ Rachel Cooke, Observer

A Telegraph Book of 2018 An Observer Pick of 2018 A New Statesman Book of 2018 A definitive history and anarchic celebration of the fight for women’s right to vote; ‘A huge achievement’ Rachel Cooke, Observer ‘Glorious’ Sunday Times ‘A definitive history of the suffragettes’ The Times ‘Magisterial’ Telegraph Between the death of Queen Victoria and the outbreak of the First World War, while the patriarchs of the Liberal and Tory parties vied for supremacy in parliament, the campaign for women's suffrage was fought with flair and imagination in the public arena. From their marches on Parliament and 10 Downing Street, to the selling of their paper, Votes for Women, through to the more militant activities of the Women's Social and Political Union, whose slogan 'Deeds Not Words!' resided over bombed pillar-boxes, acts of arson and the slashing of great works of art, the women who participated in the movement endured police brutality, assault, imprisonment and force-feeding, all in the relentless pursuit of one goal: the right to vote. A hundred years on, Diane Atkinson celebrates the lives of the women who answered the call to 'Rise Up'; a richly diverse group of actresses and mill-workers, teachers and doctors, bootmakers and sweated workers. Meticulously researched, vividly rendered and definitive, Rise Up, Women! brings these women to life in a stirring celebration of their grace, resilience and determination that changed the world forever.

"A definitive history of the suffragettes … Atkinson exhorts her readers to salute the suffragettes. She is right to so do. It is easy to assume that women’s suffrage was inevitable, but that should not detract from the efforts and losses undertaken by the pioneers so vividly described here" - The Times

"A visceral encyclopaedia of those who fought for women’s suffrage" - Telegraph, Books of the Year 2018

"Impressive and colourful, vivid and meticulous … For a blanket history of the suffragette movement, Diane Atkinson’s Rise Up, Women! should be your pick. This hefty volume leaves few stones unturned, chronicling the campaign in scrupulous detail" - Independent

"Diane Atkinson’s detailed and authoritative Rise Up, Women! seems to me to be pretty much a definitive history of the suffragettes ... Hurl this volume at a Westminster window, and it would break in an instant" - Observer

"Glorious …What it does emphasise is the courage of those women" - Sunday Times

"Atkinson chronicles the deeds and sufferings of more than 100 women in Edwardian Britain who clashed with the authorities in the pursuit of Votes for Women … The moral courage of these people is humbling" - Daily Telegraph, ‘Summer Reading 2018’

"Substantial and impressive … Surely destined to become a key general text, ranking alongside classic tomes … Atkinson’s book provide an accessible, captivating, chronological account that incorporates recent developments as well as first-hand accounts" - Times Literary Supplement

"Celebratory … Tells us how the movement changed individual women’s lives" - London Review of Books

"An exclusive and captivating story of this remarkable movement" - Sunday Express

"Scrupulously researched and highly readable" - History Today

"In a new biography of the suffragette movement, Diane Atkinson has written not just a useful guide, but a terrific page-turner. It reads at times like a novel, but with characters and events you couldn’t make up … A tour de force" - Prospect