Juliet Nicolson

Bestselling social historian Juliet Nicolson looks at the secrets kept by women over three generations and asks what they tell us about ourselves and our world.

Nicolson says the secrets we keep reflect the taboos and conventions of the time. She looks at secrets kept by the post-war generation, those kept by women in the 1960s and 70s and those kept by the modern online generations. And she asks whether, despite the steady upwards curve of liberation, women today are once again being curtailed by censure, caution and fear.

‘An amazing achievement – teeming with life, vivid history rolling alongside personal stories. It has a thrilling energy, and the great release and relief of telling the truth and being heard. A precious testament to sisterhood and trust’ Hannah Dawson, editor of The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing

Nicolson is author of three works of social history, The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War, The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911 and Frostquake: The frozen winter of 1962 and how Britain emerged a different country, and of a family memoir, A House Full of Daughters.