Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

Old Baggage

Lissa Evans

The Women's Suffrage Campaign has been successful and Mattie's militant past has been to some avail. Yet not all women have the vote and the next generation don't seem to care. Mattie intends to change all that.

Mattie is a loveable character and I engaged with her right from the start. In parts inspiring and in parts heartbreaking, I'm already recommending this book to all my friends.


London lay sprawled below, yellow streetlights like a cheap glass necklace, the diamond pin of Venus hanging above. She could hear the jangle of the fair in the distance; the music was still playing, dangerously sentimental, and she took a deep breath and began to sing 'The Marseillaise', matching her footsteps to the rhythm of the lines. A spooning couple turned to stare; she nodded at them, pleasantly. People always stared. If one didn't creep around, if one said what one thought, if one shouted for joy or roared with anger, if one tried to get things done, then seemingly there was no choice but to be noticeable. She couldn't remember a time when her path hadn't been lined with startled faces; they were her reassurance that progress was being made. What tremendous luck, she'd often thought, that she'd been born into an era of change.

  • Wake by Anna Hope
  • Suffragette: My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst
  • Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention by Cathy Newman