Fantastically written and so engaging- I can't believe I hadn't heard of some of these fantastic and fierce women before reading this book!

This is an interesting read, it covers the women in their story's much more I felt than the actual writers which I thought I was getting, but I still really enjoyed this.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion .

Absolutely loved this!! This is one of those books I'll be glad to gift to people and equally read again in the future myself.

I like the concept of this book.. It explores the work of some brilliant, often overlooked, writters. It is a detailed analysis of its subject matter. However, that detail made for an uncomfortable reading experience. It dragged in places. I found myself skipping passages. However, having said that, it is still an important read.

(Twitter)
This is a beauty! ‘Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists’ by Celia Brayfield @highcixiety is both a great read and a great introduction to these important female authors for students of literature. @BloomsburyBooks

Part biography, part literary criticism this is an exploration of the life and career of 7 key women who were writing in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I didn't always agree with the author's assertion that these writers started second wave feminism, nor that they were accidental feminists. I think these writers knew exactly what they wanted to achieve and were determined to have their place as writers in the world and refused to be held back or pigeon-holed because of their gender. It was interesting to find out more about that and the depressingly patronising way that women were treated not that long ago. These women deserve the extra focus shown here, I would also have welcomed more diverse inclusion in terms of sexuality and ethnicity. Nonetheless this is a book that shows how far we have come but also how far we still have to go, sigh.

With thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This books looks at the lives and works of some of the first female writers who broke the mould when writing about women, detailing what life was like for women in the 50s and 60s.

The book first introduces you to the "Rebel Writers" then breaks down their work into social categories, like class, love, sex, marriage etc. providing quotes from their books and plays and the reception they received. It then looks at their lives after their initial, ground-breaking works.

This as an extremely interesting read, however I hadn't realised that it was going to go so deeply into the women in their story's rather than the writers themselves. While I knew that back then, women were expected to get married, serve their husband and have children, becoming a compliant housewife. I couldn't believe that a woman couldn't open a bank account on her own!!! The way some of the reporters and critics spoke about the writers in this book was unreal, at times it felt like I was reading about a dystopian world.

At times, I felt the book did drag a little, it read like a really long essay, especially when the Celia Brayfield goes into critiquing their works. But, it was still fascinating to read about and a real eye-opener to how lucky we are to have had women who stood up and fought for our rights.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for letting me read Rebel Writers by Celia Brayfield. As someone who is v keen to read lots of 20th century female British and Irish writers, I was intrigued by the concept of Rebel Writers: exploring the writing of seven revolutionary female writers in the late 50s and early 60s. I don't think I read the blurb entirely accurately, as I was looking for a biography of the women's lives and careers, as well as dissecting the themes of their writing. This was really well-written and interesting, and I very much enjoyed reading about the literary world of the period: the Angry Young Men writers who were a brief literary spark in the 50s; the way women's writing was categorised as heavily autobiographical (something that definitely still happens today); and how these women's careers fluctuated and changed depending on economic circumstances and the support they received from publishers and agents. I didn't enjoy the structure, though, or the heavy spoilers about books I actually wanted to read (I skipped lots about the Country Girls trilogy) - and the balance and composition of the biography and literary criticism sections felt off to me. 3.5 🌟

Rebel Writers is a great book that looks at the lives of important feminist writers and the impact that they had. It focuses on Shelagh Delany, Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid-Banks, Charlotte Billingham, Nell Dun, Virginia Ironside, Margaret Forster and throws in a little bit about Francoise Sagan to boot.

What is great about Rebel Writers is that if you don't know who some of the writers are (and I must admit that there were three on the above list that I didn't know anything about) you come away at the end of the book knowing about them and more importantly understanding the cultural impact that they had. Even more interesting is the social history discussed in this novel and the way the patriarchy really tried to oppress these young ladies in a multitude of ways. Their feisty nature and the changing world around them allowed them to grow and retain their dignity if not necessarily always giving them equal rights.

Whether read for entertainment purposes or as an academic text Celia Brayfield's look at these writers is fascinating and definitely worth a read.

Rebel Writers - The Accidental Feminists by Celia Brayfield is available now.

For more information regarding Celia Brayfield (@highcixiety) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Bloomsbury Publishing (@BloomsburyBooks) please visit www.bloomsbury.com.

Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists: Shelagh Delaney • Edna O’Brien • Lynne Reid Banks • Charlotte Bingham • Nell Dunn • Virginia Ironside • Margaret Forster
by Celia Brayfield is a biographical study of the early woem writers who challenged the preconceived ideas of the role of women in society.
The book is divided into three sections; An introduction; Part One Seven Writers and Part Two Out Into the World.
The Introduction speaks of how the seven writers, listed in the title, all shared feelings of a need to revolt against their expecetd destiny – to marry, look after their husbands needs, cater for their children etc. Despite coming from different classes, backgrounds, the women all wrote of this wish in their writings, often through humour but also frequnetly with a sense of dispair. Brayfield details their backgrounds and writings(s), along with any connections between the women. And how society of the time reacted to their writings, with their contemporaries begin to acknowledge that there was a lack of female presentation in litertature – and in particular for the female viewpoint.
A fascinating literary criticsm of seven writers, whom we now recogise as havign documented important aspects of women’s lives and how they empowered the women coming after them.

This was unexpectedly brilliant! It was clearly well researched and put together in a constructive way, focusing on the writers that were just writing about women's lives. There could've been a little more diversity, including more poc and such.

Absolutely brilliant. A passionate and well researched portrait of a group of british and irish writers who just happened to be women and writing during the birth of second wave feminism. Though of course they were writing about women's lives not feminism.

Some of my favourite writers featured here - the hugely underated Lynne Reid Banks, Edna O Brien, Nell Dunn - and some whose work I've yet to read. I love the contrast with the ubiquitous "Angry Young Men".

A great p[iece of non fiction writing that made me think again about misogyny and women's determination - even at the most difficult points in history - to succeed.

Inspiring, fascinating and moving.

A really interesting read for writers and feminists alike. I learned a lot about the writers within this generation, and had no idea how much I was inspired by them without knowing their names! Fascinating insight.

As someone who loves the work of Shelagh Delaney, Margaret Forster and Nell Dunn I was excited to read Celia Brayfield's work of literary criticism. I enjoyed some of this but it wasn't quite what I was expecting and I think I would've enjoyed a biography of each writer rather than literary criticism. I wanted to know more about the writer's lives and felt that the book didn't flow easily. It makes some essential and interesting points about feminism and the fact that these writers didn't call themselves feminists (a word that was rarely used at the time) but their passions aligned with those of the second wave of feminists. Their work combined honesty, the observation of women's lives and acts as important social documentation. The author finishes by saying their impact was enormous and their legacy empowered the women who came in their wake. An important piece of literary criticism for those who enjoy this genre.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.