A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023 This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping definitive
exhaustive history of the world but something quieter more intimate and particular. A journey
picked out in 101 objects through the fascinating too-often-overlooked manifold histories of
women. Open up this cabinet of curiosities and you'll find objects that have been highly
esteemed and others that are humble and domestic. Some (like a sixteenth century glass dildo)
are objects of female pleasure some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. There are artefacts
of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it examples of female
rebellion and of self-revelation objects that are inspiring curious or (like radium-laced
chocolate) just fundamentally ill-conceived. In this compendium Annabelle Hirsch reveals a new
history - teeming unexpected witty and always illuminating.
