An Independent Book of the Month

Edith Summerskill was a remarkable politician, feminist, physician, campaigner and writer. At a time when there were few powerful women in public life, Dr Edith, as she was known, served in Clement Attlee's transformational post-war Labour government and oversaw the National Insurance scheme which solidified the welfare state in Britain. Here, Labour MEP Mary Honeyball, provides the first biography of this remarkable early pioneer for women in politics. Honeyball shows how Edith Summerskill's direct campaigning was instrumental in promoting women's causes throughout her life and lays out her remarkable achievements in securing the equal rights of housewives and divorced women over property. This is an uplifting and enlightening account of a forgotten Labour hero.

Mary Honeyball is a former Labour MEP who represented London from 2000-2019. She is author of Parliamentary Pioneers: Labour Women MPs 1918-1945 (2015).