Mary Cadogan (1) (1928–2014)

Women with Wings is a perceptive and highly entertaining celebration of the achievements of female flyers from eighteenth-century balloonists to today's astronauts. For decades female aviators had to defy social prejudices despite having achieved remarkable feats of skill and endurance. From 1910, women pilots in America performed death-defying stunts, and in England during the 1920s, a clutch of aristocratic flyers were flipping from continent to continent in their private planes. By the 1930s women had produced an abundance of record-makers - Amy Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Jean Batten and Beryl Markham among them. The Second World War recruited British and American women to ferry fighters and bombers from factories and airfields, and produced some outstanding pilots from Germany and Russia. Post-war developments included long-distance record flights and the growth of opportunity in commercial and military flight and in space exploration. As well as charting women's progress in aviation, Women with Wings considers fictional images of female flyers in comic-strips, magazines, books - from girls' adventure tales to romances. Generally speaking, fictional aviatrices, such as "Wonderwoman" and "Vanessa from Venus", achieve success more easily than their real-life counterparts. This book is both amusing and enlightening in its research on the determination and struggles of women to fly.… (mer)

Highly informative study of the portrayal of women in detective stories and thrillers. Starts right back in the mid-19th century with Mrs Paschal and covers girl detectives such as Nancy Drew, policewomen (Charmian Daniels), superannuated amateurs (Miss Marple, Dame Beatrice Lestrange et al), spies and action women (Modesty Blaise) and assistants (from Nora Charles to Mrs. North). As it was published in 1981, you won't find Kinsey Millhone, Kay Scarpetta or Sally Lockhart here, but it's never less than informative and entertaining.… (mer)

A book that is mostly about the earlier development of female characters in Detective fiction with a lookin for some spies. Concentrates on the pre and post-world war II era, this was written in 1981 and shows as there have been several new strong female characters in the last couple of decades. It would be interesting to see a sequel to this.

However it did have me wanting to write bits out and hunt up some of the books mentioned, I was surprised at how familiar several of the books were and I do believe I had read at least one book by most of the authors cited.

Overall dated but interesting.… (mer)