{related_entries id="evnt_auth_1"} {/related_entries} and {related_entries id="evnt_auth_2"} {/related_entries}

Polly Bagnall and Sally Beck reveal the true story of the Ferguson’s Gang, an eccentric and anonymous group of women in the 1920s and 30s who were instrumental in the National Trust’s fight to save areas such as Cornwall and the Lake District for future generations.

The gang raised huge sums for the trust and delivered them in strange ways, including Victorian coins in a fake pineapple, a hundred pound note in a cigar and £500 with a bottle of homemade sloe gin. Their exploits were reported in the press and, when they made a national appeal for the National Trust, it received a huge response. Bagnall and Beck explain how the campaigners hid behind pseudonyms such as Bill Stickers, Red Biddy, the Bludy Beershop and Sister Agatha, and took their real names to the grave. The two uncovered the real identities and stories behind the women who combined a sense of purpose with a sense of mischief.

Bagnall was born at the National Trust property, Shalford Mill in Surrey. Her grandfather, John Macgregor, was a member of the Ferguson’s Gang and known by the pseudonym Artichoke. He restored the derelict mill and other properties in the 1930s. Beck is a national newspaper and magazine journalist.