Bluestockings:
The First Women’s Movement
by Susannah Gibson
John Murray, 352 pages, £25
Free thinker A portrait of Elizabeth Montagu, who gathered authors, artists and politicians to her home in 18th-century Mayfair
ALAMY
A remarkable account of the early history of female liberation in Britain, this intricate story weaves together the many luminaries and intellectuals of 18th-century life. We meet Elizabeth Montagu, Hester Thrale, Ann Yearsley and Catherine Macaulay, each a woman whose name should be as well-known as Annie Besant and Mary Wollstonecraft in the ongoing fight for female equality.