What fascinated me most when researching my book, is what drove these the young women and teenagers to take this radical and dangerous step. Cross-dressing women risked prosecution with penalties…
My book tells the stories of teenagers and young women in their 20s who dressed as men to go and fight. Would they be prescribed gender-changing drugs today? For them…
Cross-dressed to Kill is the unique collection of cross-dressing women’s stories. It tells why and how hundreds of young women worldwide dressed as men in the 17th to 20th centuries. Fearless, ‘tomboys’ full…
‘Cross-dressed to Kill’ is a book featuring a unique collection of extraordinary stories by twenty women cross-dressers of English, Irish, French, Prussian, Russian, Spanish, American and Israeli nationalities.
There were literally hundreds of known women cross-dressers in Britain across Europe and in the Americas yet they have been erased from both social and military history.
The bravery of these women masquerading as men and the risks they took were great. The penalty for cross-dressing in this period was harsh, including the death penalty because it was seen as an unnatural act that threatened society and offended social morality.
The talk answers all the questions of why young women dressed as men to fight as soldiers in the 17th to 20th centuries?
I tell some of the fascinating women’s stories: fearless, ‘tomboys’, early feminists and decidedly full of what was called ‘pluck and spunk’. For them ‘patriotism had no sex’, determined to fight for their country. What did society think of them? Why was cross-dressing illegal and punishable by death? Were some lesbian or transsexual- as we debate gender today? What happened to them after they were discovered, their sex revealed while dying on the battlefield or wounded? Answers to these questions and how, unafraid to kill, their bravery was rewarded by the army and royalty.
Medals, money and fame came. Their legacy? Some are hailed as the first female sailors and soldiers like Deborah Sampson and Lucy Brewer. As the late author Hilary Mantel wrote ’ their story is our story’, to be included in the re-telling past events.
I've just been told about Amalia Kussner, female miniaturist and painter in the nineteenth century. She painted amongst other subjects ,some of the young American heiresses, who became known as…
History moves on- with the news that one of the cross-dressing women I write about in my book- Sergeant Friederike Krüger- has just had an army barracks in Munster, Lower…
Just given two talks on my new talk about the Dollar Princesses, in what is known as a trade for titles. It was a 19th century phenomenon covering 20 years…
Exciting to be teaching my Travel Writing course again this October. Why? Because it is at a time when many are questioning mass tourism and its affect on cities and…
Really good talk at Chichester and the newly-formed Chichester Women's History Network group. We had some 80 people attending. Key to my talk was the focus on the value and…
Another wonderful group of learners on the course. They produced such creative writing on topics including : a poem about Happiness; a change in my Life; A childhood memory. All…
Guest at the Shoreham Centre on the Sussex coast where again a large audience of around 100 interested people! came to listen to my talk.
Great audience at the Emsworth Museum talk, in the Community Centre. As the Museum's Director said' Didn't know so many people were interested in cross-dressing!'
Full hall of members of the 700 strong Shoreham and Southwick U3a regional group. Despite the rain and grey day, it was a full house and lovely to meet many…
