My new biography of Margaret Bondfield, the remarkable political pioneer and working-class woman who rose to become the first female Cabinet Minister in the 1929 Labour government, will be published by Bloomsbury on 19 February 2026.
It can be pre-ordered here.
Rising from modest semi-rural, semi-industrial origins in the West Country, and after years of apprenticeship in shops in Brighton, Bondfield became the first woman to chair the TUC, one of the first female Labour MPs, the first woman to hold government office (1924) and in 1929, the first female Cabinet Minister.
Most of her life was lived in the public eye, but what lay behind her public achievements? This book looks beyond the public façade to reveal Bondfield’s hidden personal story, from her complicated personality with a difficult background, a private life which was either secret or non-existent, and a lifelong struggle with imposter syndrome.
For various reasons, which I explore in the book, she has frequently been underestimated, ignored, and dismissed from the pages of her own life. My book restores her to her rightful place in history.
Pre-order Margaret Bondfield here.