The Word For Freedom #BlogTour

The Word For Freedom 

Today I am pleased to be able to participate in the blog tour for The Word for Freedom.  My thanks go to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours. 

About the Book

A collection of 24 short stories celebrating a hundred years of women’ suffrage, from both established and emerging authors, all of whom have been inspired by the suffragettes and whose stories, whether set in 1918, the current day or the future, focus on the same freedoms that those women fought for so courageously.

A clerk of works at the Palace of Westminster encounters Emily Davison in a broom cupboard; a mermaid dares to tread on land to please the man she loves; a school girl friendship makes the suffragette protests relevant to the modern day; a mother leaves her child for a tree; an online troll has to face his target; and a woman caught in modern day slavery discovers a chance for freedom in a newspaper cutting.

These stories and many more come together in a collection that doesn’t shy away from the reality of a woman’s world, which has injustices and inequalities alongside opportunities and hard-won freedoms, but always finds strength, bravery and hope.

Through this anthology Retreat West Books is proud to support Hestia and the UK Says No More campaign against domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Authors that have donated stories include:

• Sophie Duffy, author of The Generation Game; 
• Angela Readman, Costa Short Story Award winner;
• Anna Mazzola, author of The Story Keepers and winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award;
• Isabel Costello, author of Paris, Mon Amour and host of The Literary Sofa blog;
• Angela Clarke, best-selling author of the Social Media Murders series;
• Karen Hamilton, author of The Perfect Girlfriend;
• Helen Irene Young, author of The May Queen; 
• Victoria Richards, journalist and award-winning short story writer; and
• Cath Bore, feminist short story writer and broadcaster.

Review 

This is a book containing short stories of women’s suffrage.

It contains 24 short stories and is celebrating a hundred years of women’s suffrage. 

Each of the stories is limited to a few pages and can be read whilst having a few minutes peace from the hectic day with a nice cup of tea / coffee even a glass of your favourite tipple.  

I haven’t managed to read all of the stories yet and that isn’t because I am not enjoying them, more the fact that I’m enjoying reading each one in peace and quiet to enable me to get lost in the tale.  I normally read on my commute to and from work and found that I couldn’t quite give the book the attention it deserves and the time and attention I should and wanted to.

The book is therefore sat at the side of the sofa so that when I’m ready to have “5 minutes peace” I can relax knowing I have the pleasure in reading a lovely story and can contemplate the reasons women fought in the past to give us ladies today the lives we have.

As a final point, I would like to point out that Retreat West Books are proud to support Hestia and the UK Says No More campaign against domestic abuse and sexual violence. 

About the Publishers

Retreat West Books is an independent press publishing paperback books and ebooks.

Founder, Amanda Saint, is a novelist and short story writer. She’s also a features journalist writing about environmental sustainability and climate change. So all Retreat West Books publications take advantage of digital technology advances and are print-on-demand, in order to make best use of the world’s finite resources.

Retreat West Books is an arm of Amanda’s creative writing business, Retreat West, through which she runs fiction writing retreats, courses and competitions and provides editorial services.

Initially started to publish the anthologies of winning stories in the Retreat West competitions, Retreat West Books is now open for submissions for short story collections, novels and memoirs. Submission info can be found here.

Check out the rest of the blog tour with these fabulous blogs: 

My thanks to Retreat West Books for providing me a copy of the book and also Anne Cater @ Random Things Tours for my spot on the blog tour.