Jack and Eve
Two Suffragettes in Love and at War
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-83895-811-4 (ISBN)
Description
Vera Holme, known as Jack, left a career as a jobbing actress to become Emmeline Pankhurst's chauffeur and mechanic. Evelina Haverfield was a classic beauty, the daughter of a baron and fourteen years older than Jack. They met in 1908, fell in love, lived together, and became public faces of the suffragette movement, enduring prison and doing everything they could for the cause.
The First World War paused the suffragettes' campaign and Jack and Eve enrolled in the Scottish Women's Hospital Service and soon found themselves in Serbia. Eve set up and ran hospitals for allied soldiers in appalling conditions, while Jack became an ambulance driver, travelling along dirt tracks under bombardment to collect the wounded from the front lines.
Together, they carved radical new paths, demonstrating that women could do anything men could do, whether driving ambulances, running military hospitals, becoming prisoners of war or bearing arms. They refused to compromise in their sexuality - they were lifelong partners even though Jack enjoyed relationships with other women. Determined to be themselves, 'forthright, flamboyant and proud', Wendy Moore uses their story as a lens through which to view the suffragette movement, the work of women in WWI and the development of lesbian identity throughout the twentieth century.
The First World War paused the suffragettes' campaign and Jack and Eve enrolled in the Scottish Women's Hospital Service and soon found themselves in Serbia. Eve set up and ran hospitals for allied soldiers in appalling conditions, while Jack became an ambulance driver, travelling along dirt tracks under bombardment to collect the wounded from the front lines.
Together, they carved radical new paths, demonstrating that women could do anything men could do, whether driving ambulances, running military hospitals, becoming prisoners of war or bearing arms. They refused to compromise in their sexuality - they were lifelong partners even though Jack enjoyed relationships with other women. Determined to be themselves, 'forthright, flamboyant and proud', Wendy Moore uses their story as a lens through which to view the suffragette movement, the work of women in WWI and the development of lesbian identity throughout the twentieth century.
Reviews / Votes
The lovers at the centre of Wendy Moore's dynamic dual biography upend any preconceptions the reader might bring to their story...A rip-roaring story characterised by old-fashioned courage -- Hephzibah Anderson * Daily Mail * Richly researched...an invigorating and engaging tale, well fed by diaries and letters, and told with an unpretentious, straightforward energy of which the subjects themselves would approve -- Libby Purves * TLS * Had Wendy Moore been writing a novel, she could hardly have invented more fabulous leading characters than Vera 'Jack' Holme and Evelina 'Eve' Haverfield or have set her narrative in a time of greater drama...In Moore's pacey narrative, their astonishing lives once again demonstrate not only how women could seize power for themselves, but also the value of their much-underestimated resources * Literary Review * This is a story about resistance, about the refusal to conform or capitulate, and one which should inspire all women aware of how far we still have to go to be treated as men's equals. Reading the book was like taking a cool shower after a hot day * Spectator * I wish Jack and Eve were still alive today. It is fearlessly energetic women like them who make the world a better place. It needs more Jack and Eves. Fortunately, in Wendy Moore's riveting biography they live again to tell their story and inspire a new generation to be bold and true -- Amanda Foreman An astonishing love story of two true pioneers - Jack and Eve are extraordinary vital characters, brilliantly brought back to life by Wendy Moore. Politically and sexually way ahead of their time, they were also indefatigably courageous, both physically and morally. Wendy Moore has also shed genuinely fresh light on a little known aspect of the First World War and the role of two extraordinary women running hospitals in the Balkans. A remarkable and utterly compelling tale -- James Holland, author of THE SAVAGE STORM Once more, Wendy Moore proves she is unrivalled when it comes to shining a light on history's hidden figures. In JACK AND EVE, Moore gives us not one but two genuine trailblazers whose lives are worthy of a Hollywood biopic. This is nonfiction at its best. -- Lindsey Fitzharris, author of THE FACEMAKER An astounding untold story about women's role in the thick of the fighting in the First World War. I had no idea so many women boldly volunteered for such hardship. In telling Jack and Eve's love story, Wendy Moore reveals a whole lesbian culture hidden in plain sight amid death and daring. -- Polly Toynbee, author of AN UNEASY INHERITANCEMore details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
32pp plates
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83895-811-4 (9781838958114)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2024
Atlantic Books
€8.49
Available for download
Person
Wendy Moore is a freelance journalist and author of five nonfiction books on medical and social history. Her second book, Wedlock, was a Channel 4 TV Book Club choice and a Sunday Times no 1 bestseller. She lives in London.
Content
1: Under the Stars 2: A Wild Hawk 3: Jacko 4: Twin Souls 5: Burning Hearts 6: United and Happy 7: The Very Centre of the Storm 8: Doing Time 9: Sights One Can Never Forget 10: The Long, Long Trail 11: No Man's Land 12: Love's Labour 13: A Hard Road