Edwardian skydivers Lily Cove and Dolly Shepherd were among the brave breed of women who made a living leaping from balloons and floating to earth by parachute, to the wild delight of the crowds that gathered to watch.
Except it didn’t always happen like that. Tragic ‘Leaping Lily’ fell to her doom in highly mysterious circumstances over the West Yorkshire moors in 1906. Meanwhile Dolly repeatedly cheated death, executed an astonishing mid-air rescue in 1908 and lived into her 90s.
Sharon tells the often heartbreaking, always nail-biting stories of these plucky and liberated young women.
Views: 599 | Enquiries: 2I'm an author and journalist with a long career writing and editing for magazines, newspapers and websites such as The Guardian, Daily Express, BBC, Glamour, Red, The Lady and New York Post.
I'm also the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller Mother of the Brontës, the first biography of the mother of genius, and The Lost History of the Lady Aeronauts. My first book was serialised in The Mail on Sunday and I appeared on BBC Woman's Hour.
My research into fascinating, forgotten women of history makes for lively and enjoyable talks. I've spoken everywhere from the British Library and LSE to local libraries and church halls; cathedrals and literary societies to U3As and local history groups.
If there’s a teapot and an audience, I’m there.
If you are interested in this talk and wish to contact the speaker, please complete the following form: