Women Who Made History

Finding a place in the history books for women's achievements has always been a struggle in our male-dominated culture.So I suppose we should be grateful for this attempt to redress the balance, which I found in a 1960s magazine.

Unfortunately, the focus of the ad is not really on the many great achievements made by women in history, but instead it promises to reveal 'their fabulous lives and loves, hatreds and scarifices'.  With a free gift of Lucrezia Borgia!

According to this ad, Catherine the Great 'changed lovers as easily as she changed the locks on her chamber doors!'.

Now, have you ever tried to change the lock on a door? By the time you've traipsed round B&Q, got home, had a cup of tea, found your tools, then looked all over the place for the right screwdriver, which seems to have somehow mysteriously disappeared, taken off the old lock, discovered the new lock doesn't fit, gone back to B&Q, discovered they don't do locks in that size any more, so you're going to have to make a bigger hole in the door and quite frankly you've had more than enough of locks for one day, thank you very much - Well, anyway, you get the idea. It takes quite a long time. Whereas I imagine changing lovers could be accomplished in under half an hour, if you're an empress, and you put your mind to it.

But I digress. Do click on the image above, if you'd like to read more of the drivel about 'Women who made History'.

I think in this case, you can judge a book by its cover, as these luxurious volumes are bound in 'leather-like green and ivory Skivertex'. Skivertex? Classy.