Mary Gladstone

An intriguing account of a woman at the heart of world politics,
half a century before women had the vote

The world was at a point of transition between the Victorian age
and the modern world of the twentieth century. The Ottoman Empire
was in decline, the European states were jostling for power in
Africa, industrialization and the coming of the railway age had
transformed society and the working man and woman were starting to
fight for their right to education, suffrage and a better way of
life.

Mary Gladstone was daughter and private secretary to William
Gladstone, the eminent Liberal Prime Minister of the later
Victorian age. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s she was at the heart
of British politics, campaigning for her father, dealing with
official correspondence and controlling access to the Prime
Minister as well as disseminating and controlling information from
the PM both to the press and to his ministers.

This biography of Mary focuses on the period during which she was
working with her father up to his death in 1898. It covers a
crucial period in British history including Gladstone's attempts to
give home rule to Ireland, brinkmanship in the Balkans, the height
of the Empire and domestic reform such as universal male suffrage
and elementary education for all.

Sheila Gooddie is now a full time writer and author of two previous
books.

* An insight into the workings of politics in the final years of
the Victorian era and at the height of the days of Empire

* Adds a different perspective on William Gladstone, a giant of the
Victorian age

* Based on private letters as well as official documentation