Rachel Holmes on Eleanor Marx

Eleanor Marx made her name as a pioneering trade union leader, feminist and internationalist, but as Rachel Holmes shows in a compelling new biography, her achievements obscured an inner life shadowed by tragedy. From her role as personal secretary, editor and biographer to her father, Karl Marx, to her littlere-membered literary legacy, Rachel delves into a gripping life story shot through with the melodrama of a Victorian novel. Jeanette Winterson called the book ‘superb’ and The Spectator described it as ‘bold, fluent, scholarly and rewarding’.

Rachel Holmes is the author of two acclaimed biographies, Scanty Particulars and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman, and she co-edited the Virago anthology Fifty Shades of Feminism. Join us for an evening celebrating one of the most magnificent women of her age. Rachel will be in conversation with writer and journalist Anita Sethi.