The best books in which lone females overcome evil opponents to save the world

Why am I passionate about this?

As Rebecca Roberts in Apocalypse was an ancestor whose achievements have been largely ignored-maybe because of gender-it seemed to be time to redress the balance. A female author may have done the job better, but none stepped forward at the time and Hollywood screenwriter K.Lewis was keen to write a screenplay, requiring a concept screenplay outline as a guide. It was that which later became the 1st Edition of Apocalypse.


I wrote...

Apocalypse, Third Edition

By Paul Camster,

Book cover of Apocalypse, Third Edition

What is my book about?

Based on real events-Rebecca Roberts (aka Becca the Vampyre Slayer) takes on the section of Prince Rupert`s army known as The Vampyre Legion, which is sent to capture the west coast so that its commander-Lord Capel-can land a huge army and conquer all before him. On the way, Becca undergoes multiple attempts on her life.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Life of Anna Kingsford V1

Paul Camster Why did I love this book?

This book deals with the life of probably the most intelligent person on the planet at the time-not a fanciful idea as she had the highest pass rate in all of her exams to be the first woman (medical) doctor there has ever been. Her best friend and lifelong supporter was Lady Caithness-direct descendant of Catriona of Caithness who features in my book.

By Edward Maitland,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Life of Anna Kingsford V1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1913 Edition.


Book cover of Red Cactus: The Life of Anna Kingsford Paperback

Paul Camster Why did I love this book?

Basically a biography of Anna Kingsford for those who don't like Edward Maitland's. The latter was accused (justly or unjustly) of destroying evidence about Anna—especially about her early life and over-dramatising the occult incidents in her life. This newer biography corrects some of these drawbacks of the earlier version and is more in tune with modern sensibilities.

By Alan Pert,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red Cactus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Anna Kingsford (1846-1888) was an English woman of many talents: physician, feminist, Theosophist, and mystic. She campaigned strenuously for vegetarianism and animal welfare in print and giving lectures. She wrote short stories, a novel, and works on spiritual topics.She crammed much achievement into her short life, dying tragically of TB at the age of 41. Her spiritual writings and activities influenced many people. Among these were MacGregor Mathers, leader of the legendary occult society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; the poet W.B.Yeats; and Mahatma Gandhi who disseminated her spiritual works in South Africa in the 1890s. This biography…


Book cover of The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë

Paul Camster Why did I love this book?

As well as being the best Gothic style verses in the English language with the possible exception of some by Edgar Allan Poe-there are some way ahead of their time. "If Earth & Moon were gone" prefigures Mach's Principle, which was only formulated 4 decades after EJB thought of it. Anyone lucky enough to find an edition with EJB's Essays she wrote in Brussels will have a copy of her formulation of Evolutionary theory 2 decades before Mr. Darwin claimed it as his own.

By Emily Jane Brontë,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1846 a small book entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bellappeared on the British Literary scene. The three psuedonymous poets, the Bronte sisters went on to unprecedented success with such novels as Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and Jane Eyre, all published in the following year. As children, these English sisters had begun writing poems and stories abotu an imaginary country named Gondal, yet they never sought to publish any of their work until Charlotte's discovery of Emily's more mature poems in the autumn of 1845. Charlotte later recalled: "I accidentally lighted on a MS. volume of verse in…


Book cover of Saint Joan

Paul Camster Why did I love this book?

Although written as a play, it has a foreword detailing its subject—the life of Joan of Arc. Joan was the inspiration and much-admired heroine of Rebecca Roberts in my own book. Based closely on the Inquisition records, it has very moving moments, whether read or performed as a play.

By Bernard Shaw,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Saint Joan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'What other judgment can I judge by but my own?' Charting the meteoric rise and fall of Joan of Arc and her mission to drive the English from France, Shaw's Saint Joan draws directly on the medieval records to cut through the sentiment that characterized previous literary treatments of her story. A powerful example of a new kind of history play, its staging of dissent and social constraint, personal responsibility and female assertion, as well as fervent adherence to a cause, gave it a powerful modernity in its own day and continuing resonance in ours. Acclaimed internationally, this instant modern…


Book cover of The Lark

Paul Camster Why did I love this book?

A different aspect of the life of Joan of Arc.

The translations are by Christopher Fry-who wrote The Brontes of Haworth, the YorkshireTV series featuring Emily Bronte`s life, and Lillian Hellman. The latter version of The Lark is a reminder that she features in the Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave movie Julia—set in the troubled period before WW2 when both Julia in the film and a main character in my book face the bad side of Fascism.

Her radical view of religion and belief that a seemingly invincible foe could be beaten was important in convincing the—mainly female followers of Rebecca Roberts in my book that they had a chance against overwhelming odds.

By Jean Anouilh, Lillian Hellman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jean Anouilh, adapted by Lillian Hellman, Anouilh, Jean, Hellman, Lillian


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Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

By Kathleen DuVal,

Book cover of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Kathleen DuVal Author Of Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a professional historian and life-long lover of early American history. My fascination with the American Revolution began during the bicentennial in 1976, when my family traveled across the country for celebrations in Williamsburg and Philadelphia. That history, though, seemed disconnected to the place I grew up—Arkansas—so when I went to graduate school in history, I researched in French and Spanish archives to learn about their eighteenth-century interactions with Arkansas’s Native nations, the Osages and Quapaws. Now I teach early American history and Native American history at UNC-Chapel Hill and have written several books on how Native American, European, and African people interacted across North America.

Kathleen's book list on the American Revolution beyond the Founding Fathers

What is my book about?

A magisterial history of Indigenous North America that places the power of Native nations at its center, telling their story from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

By Kathleen DuVal,

What is this book about?

Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal vividly recounts, when Europeans did arrive, no civilization came to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well armed.

A millennium ago, North American cities rivaled urban centers around the world in size. Then, following a period of climate change and instability, numerous smaller nations emerged, moving away from rather than toward urbanization. From this urban past, egalitarian government structures, diplomacy, and complex economies spread…


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