Catherine Mayer

Globally famous and yet universally misunderstood – these are the complex and utterly engrossing stories of Britain's royal women behind the public façade. Saints or sinners? Perfect princesses or difficult duchesses? Monarchy’s saviours or its destroyers? They rank among the world’s most famous women – and the most misunderstood. Throughout history, royal women have been sanitised and sanctified by supporters, distorted and demonised by critics, pitted against each other, and misrepresented by the media. In this extraordinary portrait, journalist Catherine Mayer examines the lives of the central players, and the echoes and parallels that have run throughout history. The stories of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Victoria, Elizabeth II, Diana, Camilla, Kate and Meghan uncovered by Catherine Mayer are far more fascinating, poignant, surprising and enraging than any of the myths. Divide and Rule reveals these extraordinary women in all their complexity, charting their achievements, quirks, kindnesses, cruelties and profound influence. Drawing on key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, this book also demonstrates the ways in which history repeats itself – to the detriment not only of royal women but all of us.

`Buy it for yourself, your husband or partner. Most importantly, buy it for your children' Sunday Express Cometh the hour, Cometh the women. In this inspirational book, the co-founder of the Women's Equality Party sets out compelling evidence for the social and economic benefits of gender equality and lays bare the mechanisms holding women back. Everywhere women are, at best, second-class citizens. Progress towards equality hasn't only stalled; in many places, it is reversing. Things needn't be this way. Join the author on a journey to Equalia, the gender-equal future that could be ours. In this new and fully updated edition Catherine Mayer reports from the frontline of 2017, a tumultuous year that saw women's rights and protections rolled back and the global tally of female leaders fall, but galvanised feminism. It was also a tumultuous year for the author herself, who for the first time writes in detail about her sex and age discrimination suit against her former employer, TIME, and how her battle for justice, like #MeToo, demonstrated the extraordinary power of women sharing stories. JOIN THE REVOLUTION.