Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Enjoyable read! This book gives accounts of various women who made an impact - some of who I have not come across before. It gives a rich account of each of the women's lives, and the tone and pace kept me interested.
A must read to for any who have an interest in feminist history, or just want to know about some remarkable women, some of whom have been neglected until now.

In 2005 a huge debate arose over the choice of a Marc Quinn sculpture to stand on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. His choice of subject was painter Alison Lapper, who was born without arms or legs. She was unsure at first whether she would pose for the sculpture because she wanted to make sure his attitude and focus wasn’t about pity. His original thought was about ancient statues, such as the Venus de Milo, which are still thought to be beautiful even though they’ve lost limbs. Quinn wanted to explore the beauty of subjects who are born this way. Lapper warned him she was now seven months pregnant and his reply was ‘even better’. Opinions on the eventual sculpture were negative, commenting on her disability, her looks, and the fact that she was pregnant. Her nakedness shocked them and the fact she had sexual desire was taboo as well. The criticism that stung most to me, as a disabled woman, was ‘what has she ever achieved?’ There were so many judgements in that one sentence. Behind it was the implication that if you’re not a white, able-bodied, male with military or even combat experience you haven’t achieved. This is a woman who survived the care system, hospitals, constant rejection, then built a career as a painter and built a life where she became a mother. This isn’t nothing.

Holly Kyte’s book picks out women in history who have been overlooked and presents their achievements to a new reading audience. Kyte champions nine women in this book who despite suppression became extraordinary. ‘Given the opportunity’ she writes ‘women will prove themselves every time’, but that’s the point, they need the opportunity. We have a duty to make sure we highlight and celebrate women from history in the same way men are. We can’t just do it when it’s International Women’s Day, or when the mood takes us. It has to be something we continue to do until it’s commonplace, until these women are household names. As 21st Century women we often forget that we stand on the shoulders of women who dared to be different and push the boundaries.

I hadn’t heard of all the women in Kyte’s book so it was a great learning experience as well as a good read. She highlights Anne Lister, who wasn’t at all well known until the series Gentleman Jack hit our screens. I think even then, people were more scandalised or titillated by the lesbian part of her story. Although it was incredibly brave to set up home with another woman, her story showed me that it is amazing what the people around you will accept if you stand your ground and say ‘this is how I’m going to live’. What was more fascinating to me was that she lived her everyday life like a man. She answered to no one, organised her own day and didn’t fall in with the household. She dressed like a gentleman and conducted her own business showing a very shrewd brain.

Often termed ‘the first English feminist’ Mary Astell was one of the first women to advocate that women were just and rational. She also advocated for women’s education. She believed that women were not naturally inferior to men they just lacked the same opportunities, and should have more life options than being a mother or a nun. Margaret Cavendish was the Duchess of Newcastle Upon Tyne and being an aristocrat was able to publish under her own name at a time when most women couldn’t. She wrote romances and poetry, but also prose - including a work of science fiction- essays, philosophy and plays. She even attended a meeting at the Royal Society where she was able to engage with thinkers like Hobbes and Descartes. This book is stuffed full of remarkable women and it’s great to read about them, because they are the forerunners of the women we admire today. I truly enjoyed reading about them all, and the book worked as a great introduction to their work. It sparked my interest and I’d like to read a bit more about some of them. Often we forget that we stand on the shoulders of women like this, and we take it completely for granted.

The author has clearly done a huge amount of research into this book and it showed.
However at times this books felt dry and so full of details that the stories themselves were lost.

It was also a shame that so many of the women were white and not much effort was put into including women of colour.

This was not helped by the dreadful formatting of the ebook I received which repeated huge chunks of text.

I really enjoyed reading this in-depth look into some amazing feminist women who weren't fully appreciated in their time. I learned loads and will recommend this to everyone!

A interesting read in places. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Caroline Norton and Anne Lister. A nice collection featuring a variety of interesting women.

A big yes to this book. Intriguing stories that inspire me to seek out more forgotten voices in the struggle for true equality. I loved this book.

By turns funny, educational and fascinating. I actually missed my stop on the bus reading this! Thanks Holly

Roaring Girls tells the stories of eight women who have largely been forgotten by history. From cross-dressers to campaigners, these women were determined to be heard and live their lives in their own way. So many extraordinary women have been forgotten throughout our history and it's refreshing to learn more about those who made an impact on society.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Between the 17th and the 19th Century the lives of women changed and this is a biography of eight women at the forefront of this change. Between them they are the authors of countless works but each had something unique about her that upset convention. From the cross-dressing Moll Cutpurse to the freed slave to the modern businesswoman to the unhappy wife trapped by law, each of these women shines in her own right as a poor-feminist.
Flyte has chosen a disparate group of women but each has an important tale to tell and each in some way led to the laws being changed or society's viewpoint being altered. Whilst most were famous in their lifetimes, their stories have been consigned to history only to be rediscovered here.

“Roaring girl: (n) a noisy, bawdy or riotous woman or girl, especially one who takes on a masculine role.”

Holly Kyte’s Roaring Girls is a history book about eight British women, all of whom lived in Britain in the 300 years before the first wave of feminism. Since then, there have been four waves of feminism to lead us to the rights we enjoy now as 21st-century women, and although we are still a long way from equality, this book goes to show just how far we really have come.

The women featured in Kyte’s book are just eight of millions of women in history that have gone mostly forgotten, until now. The eight women featured in these pages are by no means feminists in the way we understand them now, however, they all, in some way broken the gendered rules of society at the time and lived outside of what a woman was supposed to be like.

The eight women recorded in this book are Mary Frith (AKA Moll Cutpurse) – the original ‘roaring girl’, a notorious cross-dressing pickpocket, who later became theatre actress; Margaret Cavendish – Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and philosopher, poet, playwright and essayist; Mary Astell – a writer, and champion of gender equality and women’s education; Charlotte Charke – an English actress, crossdresser known for playing ‘breeches’ and ‘travesty’ roles, Hannah Snell – a female solider who later recorded her adventures in a memoir, Mary Prince – a former slave who campaigned for the abolition of slavery in British colonies, Anne Lister – an English landowner and diarist who many will know as Gentleman Jack; and Caroline Norton – an English author who campaigned for social reform regarding women’s rights and visibility under the law.

These forgotten feminists from British history spanned the full spectrum of the social hierarchy from Duchess to slave “in short all kinds of womanhood”. These women all pushed the boundaries of gender norms in their own way; becoming trailblazers in female liberation and education, exploring sexuality, subverting the traditional gender stereotypes of gentle and quiet females, and even moving towards an identity we would now call ‘non-binary’ by dressing in ‘male’ clothing and exhibiting ‘masculine’ traits. Holly Kyte’s book brings these ‘roaring girls’ back to the forefront and celebrates the achievements of the women that allowed other women after them to make even further steps towards equality.

Holly Kyte’s Roaring Girls is a well-researched and detailed history of these eight women from their highs and lows, their wins and their pitfalls, their feminist steps as well as their less admirable attributes and life choices. Holly Kyte reminds us that these women aren’t perfect but they have, like most of us, lived complicated lives, and have ultimately moved society toward equality even in the tiniest of ways.

The end of Roaring Girls brings us up-to-date with some statistics about equality in the 21st century, from the number of women in positions of power to the current pay gap. These eight women outlined by Holly Kyte, along with many other women from history (and many more who may be lost to the history books forever), can act as inspiration and hope to every feminist striving towards equality today.

The only issue I had with this book came from what I assume was the formatting of the ebook through Netgalley, as the beginning of each chapter saw overlapping sentences which made it hard to read the first few pages of each person.

Here is a book that takes us on a journey of 8 British unknown feminists.
Mary Frith, Margaret Cavendish, Mary Astell, Charlotte Charke, Hannah Shell, Mary Price, Anna Lister, Caroline Worton.

Holly Kyle has certainly done her homework on each of these fabulous ladies. Who prior to this book I had never heard of before.
Holly tells us the story of each of these women, their life, their battles & their achievements. Also how their life still makes an impact on ours today.
I found the whole book fascinating.
Excellently written

Roaring Girls tells the tales of eight women, including Margaret Cavendish and Mary Prince, Mary Frith, Mary Astell, Charlotte Charke, Hannah Snell, Anne Lister and Caroline Norton. These aren't widely known names, but each one has a story that deserves an audience on a grand scale. Kyte gives biographical information and detail, cross referencing other work for readers to dig deeper where they want to. She demonstrates with clarity and concision what impact these women had on the rest of us, even if we never heard their names. It's a fascinating series of stories, and Kyte's style is interesting and conversational, so the reader is carried along in a proper page turner. Great.

This book about forgotten feminists of British history by Holly Kyte is a fascinating read.
Containing chapters on Anne Lister (who you might know from Gentleman Jack), Margaret Cavendish, Mary Prince and others - these women will intrigue you and stun you with their bravery and tenacity in their personal battles against slavery, gender roles, fight for education equality and tons more.
The only downside is the length of time this book has taken me to get through, it’s a long read. I can only imagine the huge amount of time, research and work that has gone into this book.

I didn't like this book and I think there are a couple of reasons why. You can tell that it's been incredibly well researched and Kyte clearly knows her stuff. But there's so much detail involved here that after a while, you just get bored hearing about the same people over and over. If you increase the number of women being discussed- there are definitely more than six or seven - it'd be more entertaining, I suppose? The chapters are very long and not all of the details are relevant. Something else you could do if you had more people? Diversify your characters. This book is overwhelmingly white and with a few extra people involved, it could be a really thoughtful discussion of British history that doesn't ignore the influences and contributions of not white people. It's a trend in British history books to ignore the impact of colonialism and wash over the horrors of what our history has done to people and nations alike.

This book is an intriguing look into the lives and deeds of 8 seemingly unknown pioneering women who in some form or another, brought feminism to their time period and helped further the cause of equality. 

We follow:
Mary Frith
Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle
Mary Astell
Charlotte Charke
Hannah Snell
Mary Prince
Anne Lister (of Gentleman Jack fame)
Caroline Norton

Roaring Girl; (n) a noisy, bawdy or riotous woman or girl, especially one who takes on a masculine role. 

Though I felt each segment on each woman was a little small for my liking (I am terribly curious and need as much information as humanly possible to absorb), the author's way of putting across her findings was beautifully done. 

After reading this, I  am incredibly interested in finding out more about the women I hadn't heard of (sadly most of them) particularly Mary Frith as I found her to be amazingly brilliant in every way. 

The beginning chapters explaining the historical position of women throughout the years culturally, politically and financially was really interesting and helpful to get an idea of what these women were facing when trying to live their lives how they wanted and needed to. 

If history, feminism, the growth of culture or just learning about some awesome people that's come before us then this is definitely the book for you. It helps to shed a little positivity on how much we've accomplished and makes what we need to conquer a little more possible.

Roaring Girls is an account of the lives of different 'forgotten' women who made an impact on British history. They are figures who lived from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, some more likely to be known or heard of than others, and they all defied rules or conventions in various ways. Starting with Mary Frith or 'Moll Cutpurse', the titular 'Roaring Girl' of Middleton and Dekker's play, Kyte includes people who fought to change opinion (like Mary Prince, who escaped slavery and had her memoir published in Britain) or live as they wanted (like Anne Lister and Charlotte Charke).

The book is detailed despite only having a small space to cover each of their lives and provides an interesting look at these women. Many people will have heard of at least some of the women in the book (particularly after the TV series about Anne Lister), and the reading experience may be best when you're discovering a new figure tied up with issues or people you've already heard about (such as Caroline Norton's connections with various famous figures and also the fight for women's rights in the law). Obviously there were a lot of different women who Kyte could have chosen to include and some of the people in it (like Anne Lister or Margaret Cavendish) are more well-known than others, but it can introduce a wide audience to previously unknown historical figures and question what they think about gender in previous centuries.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I don't know what I was expecting when I requested to read this book through NetGalley, but I am glad I did. This book taught me about amazing women i didn't know about. I hope this is a book that people will read and enjoy when it's released as I think everyone needs to learn more about these wonderful women who shaped our society and history.

An interesting book discovering some of the lesser known women who have helped shape how women live in Western society today. Women who coming from times and backgrounds where women had no voice where still able to be true to themselves and become strong and influencing, changing the way women are treated.

I had not heard of any of the women whose stories are told in this book and I feel very much more enriched now that I have discovered them. Women we should learn about in school along side the men that have shaped our world.

Roaring Girls by Holly Kyle tells the stories of the very early pioneers of feminism.Beginning with the Mary Frith in the 17th century ,the original Roaring Girl who inspired a play of the same name,the book tells the stories of 8 pioneering women who battled against the constraints and attitudes of their day to pave the way for the Suffragettes and later Women's Lib movements . Ms Kyle does a great job of telling us how women were regarded and treated back then , it's an eye-opener and not in a good way.
A good read, that occasionally flags at times when Ms Kyle labours a point , about some fascinating women and is obviously a labour of love. The book is a great insight into the beginnings of feminism from what for most women was little more than servitude.

Thanks to Holly Kyle, Netgalley and HQ Books for the ARC in return for an honest review.