PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Sarah Watling is the author of Noble Savages, for which she was awarded the Tony Lothian Prize. She holds degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and London, and was a 2020 a Silvers Grant recipient.
[A] fascinating study ... Watling's protagonists are flawed but brave, battling fascism with guts. * Observer * In her engrossing and impressive book, Sarah Watling looks at some of those women who went to war, not just to fight fascism or scratch the itch of adventure but also to show what women could do. * New Statesman * Fascinating... Sarah Watling brings alive with great vividness a small cast of disparate characters who travelled to Spain during the Civil War ... Watling brings all these passionate characters together with great aplomb. * Daily Mail * In her exhilarating book, Sarah Watling follows a handful of brilliant intellectuals as they wrestle with the nature of duty in a morally complicated world. * Mail on Sunday * Watling's narrative, inserting vivid glimpses of the conflict to situate her shuffling of a deck of characters who themselves embodied complex and evolving ideas, is expertly balanced. * Times Literary Supplement * Watling's study marks her determination to write women into the history books... this is a serious, scholarly work, which also brings her group of writers, poets and activists vividly to life. * Spectator * Fascinating and compellingly readable. -- Paul Preston, author of The Spanish Holocaust Provocative, compelling narratives of women on the front lines of fighting fascism... A powerful, moving cautionary tale for today. -- Helen Zia, author of The Last Boat Out of Shanghai A brilliant, impassioned, and much-needed tribute to the women who used their art to fight fascism... Extraordinary and captivating. -- Heather Clark, author of Red Comet Dililigently researched and beautifully written. It evocatively and incisively weaves together the experiences of a select group of remarkable women in war... This book is not only very readable but also thought-provoking... The resonance of the book in our conflicted world is all too evident, existentially and morally. * Tablet * Group biographies are notoriously hard to write. But Watling knits together with considerable skill... She also intersperses her narrative with perceptive commentary. * Literary Review * History that hums with the urgency of now. -- Joanna Scutts, author of Hotbed Brings the Spanish Civil War to freshly vivid life... She makes us feel their urgency as our own. -- Judith Mackrell, author of Flappers An intimate and nuanced exploration of what animated and sustained a group of prominent foreigners who took sides in the mortal ideological struggle against fascism that was the Spanish Civil War. -- Brooke Kroeger, author of Undaunted
