FOREWORD

My older child was able to vote for the first time in the last election, and took a lot of pride in it. This brought home to me the importance of being able to vote, and when I discovered that the centenary of the date on which the first British women were given the vote was coming up, I thought that it deserved recognition.

And it was that idea which led to this book, Make More Noise. We decided to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage by creating a collection of brand new short stories by some of our favourite women writers, celebrating interesting and inspiring female characters.

Some of these stories have been inspired by real people and events from history, and others are entirely imagined, but what they all share is a celebration of girls and women at the centre of their own stories − in all kinds of different ways.

From Sally Nicholls’ re-imagining of the night of the 1911 census, on which many women hid from their homes as a protest against their lack of voting rights, to Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s magical parable of a world that’s been flooded by a sea of witch’s tears, there is something here for everyone. There are ghost stories, fairy tales, stories set in the present day, and stories set over a hundred years ago. Stories that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you think, and make you cheer.

We’re so proud of the incredible collection of authors who have contributed to Make More Noise, and of the stories they have written.

And we’re also especially happy to be partnering with Camfed for this book. Camfed is an international charity tackling poverty and inequality by supporting marginalized girls to go to school and succeed, and empowering young women to step up as leaders of change, and it felt particularly appropriate to be able to support these efforts with a book celebrating inspiring girls and women: £1 from the sale of every copy of Make More Noise will go directly to Camfed.

In the speech from which this book takes its name, Emmeline Pankhurst said: “You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under.”

We hope that this book inspires you to make more noise.

 

Kate Wilson, Managing Director, Nosy Crow
February 2018