Chapters (42)
- Map
- Prologue | February 1886
- PART 1 | 1887–1896
- May 1887
- April 1888
- April 1891
- August 1893
- September 1896
- PART 2 | 1897–1901
- August 1897
- April 1898
- September 1898
- August 1901
- PART 3 | 1902–1907
- May 1902
- May 1906
- June 1906
- December 1906
- March 1907
- PART 4 | 1907–1913
- September 1907
- November 1907
- November 1908
- May 1909
- December 1912
- January 1913
- May 1913
- PART 5 | 1914–1915
- August 1914
- May 1915
- July 1915
- September 1915
- PART 6 | 1928
- November 1928
- Epilogue | Adelaide, 1989
- Author’s Note
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline of the Oxford English Dictionary
- Timeline of Major Historical Events Featured in the Novel
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
| 1894 | South Australian Parliament passes the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act. This act grants all adult women (including Aboriginal women) the right to vote and the right to stand for Parliament. It is the first parliament in the world to do so. While women in New Zealand won the right to vote in 1893, they were not eligible for election to the House of Representatives until 1919. |
| 1897 | National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) formed, led by Millicent Fawcett. |
| 1901 | Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII becomes King. |
| 1902 | The newly established Australian Parliament passes the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, enabling all adult women to vote at Federal elections or stand for Federal Parliament (except those who are “aboriginal natives” of Australia, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands). |
| 1903 | Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) formed, led by Emmeline Pankhurst. |
| 1905 | WSPU begin militant campaign, including civil disobedience, destruction of property, arson and bombings. |
| 1906 | The term suffragette is applied to militant suffragists. |
| 1907 | Elizabeth Perronet Thompson publishes A Dragoon’s Wife. |
| 1908 | Adelaide woman Muriel Matters chains herself to the grille of the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons as part of a protest organised by the Women’s Freedom League (WFL), a non-militant suffrage organisation. |
| 1909 | Marion Wallace Dunlop is the first gaoled suffragist to go on hunger strike—many will follow. |
| 1909 | Charlotte Marsh, Laura Ainsworth and Mary Leigh (née Brown) are force-fed in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. |
| 1913 | January 8, “Battle of the suffragists.” A peaceful procession of suffragist societies in Oxford is disrupted by an anti-suffrage crowd. |
| 1913 | June 3, Rough’s Boathouse, in Oxford, is burned down. Four women are seen fleeing, three in a punt, one along the road. Non-militant suffragists condemn the action and collect money for laid-off workers. |
| 1914 | War with Germany is declared. |
| 1914 | Sixty-three men from the Oxford University Press march out of the grounds to report for duty. |
| 1914 | The First Battle of Ypres. |
| 1915 | The Battle of Festubert. |
| 1915 | The Battle of Loos. |
| 1918 | End of World War I. |
| 1918 | The UK coalition government passes the Representation of the People Act, enfranchising all men over the age of twenty-one, and women over the age of thirty who meet minimum property qualifications. |
| 1928 | The UK Conservative government passes the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, giving the vote to all women over the age of twenty-one on equal terms with men. |
About the Author
Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. She is a regular visitor to the UK. Pip is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel.
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