Yvonne Bennett obtained a BA and MA through the Open University. On leaving school, she trained as a nurse and, after having children, retrained as a nursery schoolteacher. She has completed a PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her research area of interest is conservative Presbyterianism in the Gàidhealtachd (Highlands and Islands) of Scotland. In 2021, Bennett published a book that examines the ways in which churches in Britain help the vulnerable in their communities. The book 'The Church Who Needs It? We Do!' examines the difficulties a group of South London women experience with Universal Credit and life under lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, she edited a book, 'Women and Religion in Britain Today: Belonging' with Vernon Press. In 2024, she co-authored a book published by Vernon Press, 'Stories from the Front Line: The People Behind the NHS Headlines'. This book examined the ways in which NHS Scotland, and in particular its flagship hospital, was letting down the elderly by exposing them to iatrogenic harm.
This is an inclusive and sensitive volume with a creative spirit. It offers bottom-up, rich analyses of lived experiences in ways that are reflective and intellectually rooted. The book has clear relevance to scholarly discourse on religion and gender within the UK and beyond. Alex D. J. Fry Bournemouth University Author of 'Gender Inequality in the Ordained Ministry of the Church of England'