My talk is about the extraordinary and fascinating British women featured in my new book, Magnificent Women and Flying Machines, a book recognised as the only one on this subject and covering British pioneering women who were the very first in various fields of aviation. Take Letitia Sage for instance, a failed actress who, just 18 months after two Frenchmen made the world’s first ever flight in 1783, and dressed in a wonderful long dress and huge hat, hopped into a flimsy balloon and flew across the London sky for nearly an hour. Since then, other remarkable British women have decided to defy traditional society and follow their dreams to get into the sky.

My talk, supported by a range of historic pictures, tells in a light hearted way the stories of these pioneering British women who achieved real firsts in various forms of aviation, from ballooning and parachuting, gliding, airships and fixed wing flight right up to a trip to the International Space Station. My talk covers some of their entertaining adventures plus provides a wealth of new information and snippets of social history. I can only touch on some of the extraordinary characters and amazing adventures in my hour long talk but my idea is that, along with being entertaining, my talk also gives some recognition to these amazing and adventurous women who have been ignored for so long.