Daring to Hope

Praise

“Rowbotham is one of Britain’s most important, if unshowy, feminist thinkers, and a key figure of the second wave.”
—Melissa Benn, Guardian

“For Rowbotham, women’s liberation was bound up with the dismantling of capitalism. But it also required—and here they departed from the Old Guard left—a rethinking of everyday patterns of life, relating to sex, love, housework, child rearing.”
—Amia Srinivasan, New Yorker

“Frank, powerful and vibrant.”
—Rachel Collett, Tribune

“Daring to Hope captures [Rowbotham’s] youthful Utopian spirit. In it, she looks back at a decade of social change and recounts her experiences on the frontline of feminism.”
—Rosa Silverman, Telegraph

“Thoroughly engaging … I felt aligned with the frank and personal account of a young woman’s life changing throughout the decade.”
—Cathy Crabb, Northern Soul

“A deeply compelling story about the making of our own times … Rowbotham’s humanity and craft shines through.”
—Rana Mitter, BBC History Magazine (“Books of the Year 2021”)

“Rowbotham has wisdom—and wit.”
—Yvonne Roberts, Observer

“Rewarding.”
—Clare Griffiths, Times Literary Supplement

“Shows us what is possible, but that it is our job to go out and do it.”
—Lydia Hughes, Red Pepper

“A very enjoyable read, chronicling the ways in which the author engaged with the increasing challenges of the 1970s, while maintaining her hopes for an alternative future.”
—Marjorie Mayo

“Exciting … I read it over a weekend.”
—Ross Bradshaw, Spokesman Journal

“Beautifully-measured account of a radical decade … [Rowbotham] meets and makes friends with suffragettes, old communists and an ageless Dora Russell. This book is a valuable bridge between today’s feminism and that of our forebears.”
—Erica Smith, Peace News