Eva was the only woman from the islands who showed up at the commune that Wednesday. In her notebook she records that she enjoyed the diatribe (as she put it) and liked the women who gave it. They were on Skellar to live out the principles of the Women’s Liberation Movement. All nine women took their turn to speak about this. The ‘blonde one’, Gloria, started by talking of culturally-ingrained patriarchies. She began with the church, the male god of Christianity, the male god’s male son, the death of the pagan matriarchal goddess; went on to speak of the modern political system (no mention was made of Margaret Thatcher), the unjust judiciary, the dominance of men in banking, media and manufacturing. After that, Gayatri spoke about words and their meanings, and possibly about colonialism, although by then Eva felt her brain aching as never before with the effort to keep up. She followed the argument of the third woman, Mary, a little better. Mary wore a black hat and white dress, and soliloquised on the oppression of beauty. Simone interrupted, to be brusque about the tyranny of the female body. Audre, whom Eva had assumed was French, too, until she began speaking, reminded Simone about the useful directions in which Gayatri had taken the conversation on race and oppression. Before things got too heated, a sixth woman, Betty, made an announcement: they were changing the name of the island to Gyno or Vagina or Bean (the Gaelic word for woman); voting would take place that evening, after refreshment. Eva couldn’t help laughing. ‘You think it’s so funny?’ said Gloria. ‘Is it funny to call a tiny island after women? I don’t hear anyone laughing at the Isle of Man.’ Eva, chastened, sat quietly after that. She listened as Christine discussed myths and legends, especially the Amazons. Donna provoked a lively discussion of how women had become conditioned to imbibe the violence of their menfolk through the horrific deaths meted out to cows, chickens, pigs and sheep; and the state of things on the islands was worse, for gun-blasted fauna were offered up as dinner. (Eva shuddered; the Harcourt-Vanes owned a whole moor which was rented out for stalking.) Finally, Judy spoke. She was the sternest. Her speech concerned the nature of the commune, and its wider purpose. She exhorted Eva to return with other women of the archipelago, so that they could all learn, hand in hand, how to insert themselves and their achievements into the course of history, retrospectively. She wanted women of the future to grow up under a just dispensation, and she was sure Eva wanted this too; plus, it was worth bearing in mind that no woman could consider herself truly free until she had rid herself completely of reliance, however trivial or loving, on husbands, brothers, male authority figures, and all types of tradesmen.