{"id":1640,"date":"2025-09-16T15:06:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:06:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:06:40","slug":"a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Amy Gray on the publication of her (much-needed) new biography, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster, <\/em>published by The History Press <\/a>(2025). Amy\u2019s book launch is at Waterstones, Cardinal Place, 88 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5JL this evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Who was the Red Duchess Kitty Atholl?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018The Duchess of Atholl was a pioneering female politician who thought women didn\u2019t need a vote; a conservative who shared platforms with communists; a shy public speaker who travelled the world speaking for Spanish refugees: the formidable Duchess of Atholl was full of contradictions.<\/p>\n

Born into an ancient Scottish family and married to a philandering duke, Kitty rose above the constraints of her class and convention to become a tireless advocate for women and children. By her election as the first Scottish female MP in 1923, she was one of the most prominent women in Scotland – and that was well before she shocked Westminster with outspoken rebellions against her own government.<\/p>\n

She stood with Spanish refugees and challenged fascism, visited war zones and campaigned with her political opponents, criticised tyrants and wrote her own political playbook’<\/p>\n

(from inside cover of The Red Duchess<\/em> (2025)).<\/p>\n

Going forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are delighted that Amy is planning to write for our site on \u00a0\u2018Katherine Murray Stewart, Duchess of Atholl: From Anti-Suffrage Campaigner to Pioneering Woman Minister\u2019 and at a later date on opposition to the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise Act) 1928 \u2013 watch this space!!!<\/p>\n

Red Duchess<\/em>, will be quickly appearing on our module lists, especially the third year module \u2018Battleaxes and Benchwarmers: The Aftermath of Suffrage and Early Women MPs\u2019.<\/p>\n

You can hear Amy discussing the book on BBC Women’s Hour<\/a> (from about 22.50).<\/p>\n

Red Duchess<\/em> is available at bookshop.org<\/a>,\u00a0Waterstones<\/a>\u00a0or Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Amy Gray on the publication of her (much-needed) new biography, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster, published by The History Press (2025). Amy\u2019s book launch is…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[233,234,236,232,17,231,235,22],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-events","tag-a-rebel-in-westminster","tag-amy-gray","tag-first-scottish-female-mp","tag-kitty-atholl","tag-parliament","tag-red-duchess","tag-women-mp","tag-women-mps"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Congratulations to Amy Gray on the publication of her (much-needed) new biography, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster, published by The History Press (2025). Amy\u2019s book launch is...Read More >\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2025\/09\/Red-Duchess.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jacqui Turner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LadyAstor100\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LadyAstor100\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jacqui Turner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jacqui Turner\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/3104705c849b40bcdab31fdea11420c5\"},\"headline\":\"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025)\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"A Rebel in Westminster\",\"Amy Gray\",\"First Scottish female MP\",\"Kitty Atholl\",\"Parliament\",\"Red Duchess\",\"Women MP\",\"Women MPs\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News and Events\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\",\"name\":\"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/\",\"name\":\"Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics\",\"description\":\"Challenging the male narrative in parliament\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Reading\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2022\/07\/readinglogo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2022\/07\/readinglogo.gif\",\"width\":2386,\"height\":782,\"caption\":\"University of Reading\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LadyAstor100\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/3104705c849b40bcdab31fdea11420c5\",\"name\":\"Jacqui Turner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b79767b51e17ac1c0226c781a4e3435f44168bdfcbeef4f5b7ef20f58d5f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b79767b51e17ac1c0226c781a4e3435f44168bdfcbeef4f5b7ef20f58d5f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jacqui Turner\"},\"description\":\"I am broadly interested in C19th and early C20th parliamentary politics and political cultures including gender, early feminism and a mix of working class politics and religion. My existing research 'The soul of the Labour Movement' is a detailed examination of the Victorian morality and spirituality upon which the life of the Labour movement was built and includes the wider contribution of the women's movement, children's associations and radical literary traditions. My current research concerns early female pioneers in politics, focusing largely on female MPs between 1919 and 1931 primarily as 'sex-candidates'. I examine the contribution of early female MPs but also reassess the importance of the 1918 Representation of the People Act on British democracy, in relation to women and the emergence of female politicians - I am particularly interested in Nancy Astor, who was the first female MP to sit in the House of Commons and whose papers are held at the University of Reading. After spending several years working in heritage, I remain interested in archives and collections, material culture, museums and heritage.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/history\/our-staff\/jacqui-turner\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dr-jacqui-turner-09b994110\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/author\/e-j-turnerreading-ac-uk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics","og_description":"Congratulations to Amy Gray on the publication of her (much-needed) new biography, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster, published by The History Press (2025). Amy\u2019s book launch is...Read More >","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/","og_site_name":"Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics","article_published_time":"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1708,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2025\/09\/Red-Duchess.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jacqui Turner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LadyAstor100","twitter_site":"@LadyAstor100","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jacqui Turner","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/"},"author":{"name":"Jacqui Turner","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/3104705c849b40bcdab31fdea11420c5"},"headline":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025)","datePublished":"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/"},"wordCount":303,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization"},"keywords":["A Rebel in Westminster","Amy Gray","First Scottish female MP","Kitty Atholl","Parliament","Red Duchess","Women MP","Women MPs"],"articleSection":["News and Events"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/","name":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025) | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-16T14:06:40+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/a-new-biography-amy-gray-red-duchess-kitty-atholl-a-rebel-in-westminster-2025\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A new biography! Amy Gray, Red Duchess: Kitty Atholl \u00a0A Rebel in Westminster (2025)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/","name":"Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics","description":"Challenging the male narrative in parliament","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#organization","name":"University of Reading","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2022\/07\/readinglogo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2022\/07\/readinglogo.gif","width":2386,"height":782,"caption":"University of Reading"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/LadyAstor100"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/3104705c849b40bcdab31fdea11420c5","name":"Jacqui Turner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b79767b51e17ac1c0226c781a4e3435f44168bdfcbeef4f5b7ef20f58d5f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b79767b51e17ac1c0226c781a4e3435f44168bdfcbeef4f5b7ef20f58d5f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jacqui Turner"},"description":"I am broadly interested in C19th and early C20th parliamentary politics and political cultures including gender, early feminism and a mix of working class politics and religion. My existing research 'The soul of the Labour Movement' is a detailed examination of the Victorian morality and spirituality upon which the life of the Labour movement was built and includes the wider contribution of the women's movement, children's associations and radical literary traditions. My current research concerns early female pioneers in politics, focusing largely on female MPs between 1919 and 1931 primarily as 'sex-candidates'. I examine the contribution of early female MPs but also reassess the importance of the 1918 Representation of the People Act on British democracy, in relation to women and the emergence of female politicians - I am particularly interested in Nancy Astor, who was the first female MP to sit in the House of Commons and whose papers are held at the University of Reading. After spending several years working in heritage, I remain interested in archives and collections, material culture, museums and heritage.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/history\/our-staff\/jacqui-turner","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dr-jacqui-turner-09b994110\/"],"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/author\/e-j-turnerreading-ac-uk\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1643,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}