FEATHERS will fly at the 2018 Knutsford Literature Festival when author Tessa Boase tells the strange but true story of a little-known rival to Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffrage campaign.

In her new book, Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather, the acclaimed social historian tells the story of bird-loving Etta Lemon’s crusade against the Edwardian plumage trade.

Described as the ‘Mrs Thatcher of the bird world’, Etta Lemon was anti-suffrage, anti-fashion and definitely anti-feathers, while Emmeline Pankhurst was strong, radical, highly fashionable and much given to feathers.

During her illustrated at 8pm on Friday, October 12, Tessa presents a new angle to the story of women’s suffrage and conservation, exploring two very different heroines – one lionised, the other forgotten – and their rival, overlapping campaigns.

There is more from the festival’s female authors on Saturday, October 13.

At 11am Russian specialist Helen Rappaport introduces her third and final volume on the Romanovs, and at 2.30pm Julie Summers will go behind the scenes to find out how some of our finest country houses fared when they were requisitioned by the government for schools and hospitals in the Second World War.

All three events take place at The Methodist Church on Princess Street. Tickets are £5 and are available now from Waterstones.

For details of all festival events and how to book by post visit knutsfordlitfest.org