I think Mike Rendell has done a great job of bringing these trailblazing women back into the spotlight. I enjoyed Rendell’s writing style; he gets straight to the point. It’s the sort of book you can dip in and out of because it is written in sections. The book has glossy pages and features beautiful illustrations and portraits. I just know I am going to refer to this book often and no doubt you’ll see it crop up in a few future blog posts!

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Lifelong History Lover

Author article 'The king is dead' as featured by

Jane Austen's Regency World, January/February 2020

I would recommend this to anybody getting into the history of the Georgian period... you'll enjoy this as Mike has a fantastic writing style!

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Lil's Vintage World

That was quite an interesting read for me as I hadn't heard of quite a lot of the women featured in this book. It's a nice collection of short biographies, perfect for an introduction. Trailblazing Women is also enriched with pictures and quotations from primary sources.

NetGalley, Camille Brown

Author article 'Charlotte's nuptials' as featured by

Jane Austen's Regency World, March/April 2019

★★★★★ Rendell's writing style is light and easy to read without being simplistic

Of the 17 female achievers Mike Rendell focuses on in Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era, many are household names to people familiar with 18th century history: Fanny Burney, a novelist who laid the way for Jane Austen and others; Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer; Mary Wollstonecraft, pioneer feminist; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, advocate of inoculation against smallpox. Others are much more obscure. I am thinking of Jane Marcet, writer of scientific books that inspired Michael Faraday; Sarah Guppy, inventor; Hester Pinney, lacemaker and stockbroker; Hester Bateman, silversmith; Mary Darly, print shop owner; Anna Fry, chocolatier.

The achievements of all of these women were stunning when you consider the world they lived in. As the author explains in the introduction, the structure of society, its laws and customs, automatically put women in a deeply subordinate position to men. 'Coverture', for instance, by which a woman’s legal existence was ‘incorporated and consolidated’ into that of her husband meant that in law a married woman was effectively not a person. The custom of primogeniture ensured that women were usually effectively disinherited. Marriage law shackled women in violent and unhappy marriages; they were at risk of losing their children if they left.

That women ran businesses, managed teams, influenced politicians, created, performed, gave birth, ran households and did a million other things should surprise no one. They have been doing so since the dawn of time. As Rendell is careful to explain, all the female achievers in the book had precursors and followers. Their work was often ‘painted over’ and forgotten, precisely because they were women. Perhaps what marks the Georgian era out is that despite the entrenched misogyny, legal disadvantage and reduced human rights that women faced things were beginning to shift. After all, an interval of just over 80 years separates the end of the Georgian era and the beginning of female suffrage. Even so, there remains, still, plenty more equality, of education and of recognition, to achieve.

Rendell’s writing style is light and easy to read without being simplistic, and the chapters follow a formula in which the lives of the women are set in context, followed by a section looking at the impact each had on her field and the path she beat for other women.

Interesting and lively. A good read.

Amazon Customer

As featured on

Naomi Clifford, Author

His neutral standpoint allows these 17 extraordinary women to speak for themselves.

Jane Austen's Regency World

Article by Brian Lee: 'Georgian women who fought against equality' as featured by

Barry Gem, 17th May 2018

Rendell presents a clear picture of the expectations for women and the ways in which the women her choose expressed their individuality.

NetGalley, reviewed by Judith Morris

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The author has clearly done a lot of research when compiling the women for this book. Even though the sections were short, there was a lot of information included. It was good to see that some of the woman were based in Bristol which is local to me, and a city I visit often.

I really enjoyed this book and it was a nice break between fiction. It definitely interested me, and appealed to me, as someone who is really into British history.

I'd definitely recommend it! It just goes to show that women can do anything.

NetGalley, reviewed by Katie Brock

An interesting look at the public role of women in the Georgian era, this book asks whether women were as unenterprising as has historically been thought. I learned about some women previously unheard of to me, and I thought the author wrote well and the book kept my interest. The author makes a good closing argument where he discusses the sidelining and the glossing over of the work of most women in history.

NetGalley, reviewed by Gayle Noble

I enjoyed the work, found it enlightening and easy to read. I would recommend it to others who want to know more about the Georgian Era, more about women's history and the ways they have circumvented conventions, and even those hoping to gain a greater understanding of various economic and business practices of the time period. I can even see this work being beneficial in literary and history classes focusing on the time period.

NetGalley, reviewed by Tiffany Thompson

The book itself has a conversational style, one I’ve noted with other books by Pen & Sword, and so it’s easy to fall into reading it. I read quite a lot of history books and most are so detailed they can feel overwhelming. This doesn’t and, as I said earlier, is a great introduction to the subject.

NetGalley, reviewed by Emma Littlefield

This book was very informative and showcased how women from this era paved the way for the women's movement.

NetGalley, reviewed by Cristie Underwood

This was a very interesting book. I learned so much -- some things I knew, some things I didn't know and some things I learned more about. I find this part of history interesting and incorporating well known women in history adds to the interest as well as understanding. People of the past truly do pave the way for the future and these trailblazing women of the Georgian Era are an example. Their hardship has led to today's equality, but it is not over yet and we have this book as a look at the past to help us improve the future.

NetGalley, reviewed by Charity Howard