Emily Wilding Davison The Martyr Suffragette

Emily Wilding Davison was the most famous suffragette to die in the battle for women’s rights, after colliding with the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913, but who was she, and how did she end up dying for her cause? Her notorious final act of protest has for decades obscured her extraordinary life. Now, one hundred years on from the first British women winning the vote, this new biography reveals the story of the respectable governess who pivoted towards vandalism and violence in pursuit of female enfranchisement. Times journalist Lucy Fisher draws on the suffragette’s own words, contemporary press reports and academic scholarship to paint a vivid picture of Davison’s unusual tale and tragic finale.