Bøger af Sheila Gooddie

Nearly half a century before women in Britain had the vote, Mary Gladstone, daughter of the eminent Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, had her own office in Downing Street. As private secretary to her father she was at the heart of world affairs. She also led the life of a privileged young woman of the Victorian era: one that revolved around ball gowns and dance cards, amours and house parties.

Born in 1860 Annie Horniman was the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant. She was allowed an unusual freedom for a young Victorian girl and studied at the Slade School of Art, learned to ride a bicycle, joined in the quest to learn occult mysteries and met W.B. Yeats who became a close friend. This friendship led her into the London Irish scene and the world of theatre. She used her personal wealth to fund new, experimental plays which led to the first performance of a Bernard Shaw play. Her next move was to Dublin and she generously helped the Irish Literary Theatre with free costumes, sharing their dreams of a theatre which she would fund. The Abbey Theatre opened its doors on 27 December 1904. She soon decided that Manchester would be the city where she would form a repertory theatre, producing new plays and old masterpieces. Ibsen and Shaw were central to her plans. In 1908 she bought the Gaiety Theatre which became the home of the first permanent repertory theatre in the country. Her theatre introduced the plays of Stanley Houghton and Alan Brighouse and she became an artistic and a business success, a successful woman in a man's world. She had London seasons and in 1912 she took her actors to Canada and America and wherever she went she gave talks on repertory theatre. In 1933 she was made a member of the Order of Companions of Honour and was delighted to receive her honour from King George V at Buckingham Palace. She died in 1937.

An intriguing account of a woman at the heart of world politics, half a century before women had the vote The world was at a point of transition between the Victorian age and the modern world of the twentieth century. The Ottoman Empire was in decline, the European states were jostling for power in Africa, industrialization and the coming of the railway age had transformed society and the working man and woman were starting to fight for their right to education, suffrage and a better way of life. Mary Gladstone was daughter and private secretary to William Gladstone, the eminent Liberal Prime Minister of the later Victorian age. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s she was at the heart of British politics, campaigning for her father, dealing with official correspondence and controlling access to the Prime Minister as well as disseminating and controlling information from the PM both to the press and to his ministers. This biography of Mary focuses on the period during which she was working with her father up to his death in 1898. It covers a crucial period in British history including Gladstone's attempts to give home rule to Ireland, brinkmanship in the Balkans, the height of the Empire and domestic reform such as universal male suffrage and elementary education for all. Sheila Gooddie is now a full time writer and author of two previous books. * An insight into the workings of politics in the final years of the Victorian era and at the height of the days of Empire * Adds a different perspective on William Gladstone, a giant of the Victorian age * Based on private letters as well as official documentation