The cost of freedom is sacrifice
 
London, 1908. It’s the dawn of a new century and change is in the air.
 
When 17-year-old Beatrice Taylor stumbles across the offices of the infamous Pankhursts and the Women’s Social and Political Union she begins to realise her future may not be the one she wants.
 
Her friend Catherine Dawson is too pragmatic to get caught up in the women’s suffrage movement. Despite Oxford refusing to award women degrees she is determined to keep apace with her twin brother and pursue a career in science.
 
Meanwhile, Ida Bennett, recently promoted to head wardress of DX wing at Holloway Prison has her work cut out for her. The suffragette inmates are refusing to be treated like criminals—and Ida's not having any of it.
 
This is the story of three women whose lives become entwined—with the burgeoning women’s movement and with each other. Like Fire-Hearted Suns shows how much things have changed for women—and how much they stay the same.

About the Author

Melanie Joosten is the author of two novels and a book of essays. Berlin Syndrome (2011), a psychological thriller, won the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist prize, and the Kathleen Mitchell Award for the best writer in Australia under 30. Berlin Syndrome was made into an internationally released, AACTA-nominated film directed by Cate Shortland and starring Teresa Palmer. A Long Time Coming: Essays on Old Age was shortlisted for the Nib Waverley Prize (and won the People’s Prize). It was named the Australasian Journal of Ageing Book of the Year. A social worker by profession, she works as an adviser in justice reform.