Eva Gore Booth and Esther Roper - Gifford Lewis

Eva Gore-Booth, an Anglo-Irish woman who earned her living as a suffrage union organizer in Manchester met Esther Roper, the daughter of a missionary, by chance in Italy in 1896 whilst recovering from consumption. Their mutual interest in women's rights and the suffrage movement was to lead to a life-long relationship.;This dual biography explores their life together, their non-conformity within the confines of the suffrage movement and their campaigns for the rights of women circus performers, barmaids and the flower sellers of Oxford Circus. They broke with the Pankhursts because they were horrified by her adoption of violence, and always remained attached to the conservative and "staid" NUWSS led by Mrs Fawcett, where they were thought of as "not quite respectable". Their point of departure into the public eye was with the foundation and publication of the journal "Urania" in 1961, which preached a kind of mental hermaphroditism by asking its readers to give up masculinity and femininity.;Gifford Lewis is also the author of "Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish".