Bøger af Susanna Hoe

'Dinosaur Isle', the first chapter of this book, is about the women and girls who have hunted for, and found, dinosaur fossils.

It is not surprising that islands tend to be different from the country to which they are in some way attached. But Sardinia's personality differs even more from that of Italy than one might expect. This book explores that difference through the history of the Island's women.

From Homer to Jane Austen, storytellers have entertained their audiences with tales of women in disputes, as parties and peacemakers. This is our attempt to write their history, relying as far as possible on primary sources, documents which have survived by chance, never intended for our eyes by those who created and preserved them.

A crater on the planet Mercury is named Maria de Dominici. Born in 1645, she was the first established Maltese woman artist. She, and other women in Maltese history, are little known about. But Malta is much more than Knights of St John and Second World War courage. This book tells their story through the waves of women who arrived in the archipelago of Malta and Gozo, starting with Sicilian farmers 7,000 years ago, and ranging through Phoenician, Roman, and Arab times, until women of European extraction, but speaking an Arabic-influenced language, established a Maltese identity. Best known of those who have made their mark are, perhaps, Mabel Strickland, newspaper proprietor, and Agatha Barbara, in 1982 first woman president of the independent Republic of Malta. But the lives of less-known women of all classes who flourished in the islands over the centuries have also been reconstructed here, from Betta Caloiro, accused of witchcraft, who died aged 89 in the Inquisitor's prison, to the Marchesa Bettina Dorell, with her grand palazzo at Gudja. Itineraries take the reader to those places. British women, such as Emma Hamilton, Hester Stanhope, Florence Nightingale and Vera Brittain, began arriving in Malta in 1800, during and after French Revolutionary occupation; and many settled there temporarily or permanently, from governors' wives dispensing charity to shopkeepers, hoteliers and teachers. As often as possible, the history of women in Malta and the places in which they had their being are told and described through the writing of women: archaeologists, historians, travellers, novelists and poets.

This livret links legend and archaeology by writing and place, but does not neglect Crete's other women. Over the centuries they were subject to numerous violent changes of overlord - Mycenean, Roman, Byzantine, Saracen, Venetian, Ottoman - but somehow have emerged as Cretans.

This book describes the taking of Hong Kong from Elliot's point of view for the first time '- through the personal letters of himself and his wife Clara '- and shows a man of intelligence, conscience and humanitarian instincts.

The first aboriginal woman to be named in exploration literature is Ouray-Ouray; the best known is Trukanini, erroneously called the last Tasmanian when she died in 1876. This book gathers together these strands, and that of a vibrant women's literature, linking them to place - an island of still unspoilt beauty and unique flora and fauna.

The writing of history used to concentrate on narrative, analysis or theory. The historian stayed out of sight. This book is part of a more recent trend. Here, Susanna Hoe discusses her relationship to her material, the processes of research and writing, and her characters.

In 1900, Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister, was assassinated in a Peking street. By 4pm the first shots were fired and a siege by Boxers and imperial troops had begun. Among the besieged were 148 women from around the world and Maud, the Baron's widow. This book tells their story.

A diary of a stay in Papua New Guinea. The author introduces the reader to the family cleaner - Margaret - her extended family, her unreliable husbands and her independent spirit. Then there is Kaman, the gardener, who has to be prised away from his creation so that his employers can enjoy it.