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Twentieth-Century Girl: The Diary of Flora Bonnington, also titled 1900: A Brand New Century, is a My Story book written by Carol Drinkwater. It is Drinkwater's second book for the series after The Hunger. The book was published by Scholastic UK in July 2001 and republished in March 2010. It was combined with its sequel, Suffragette, for the 2012 book Cadogan Square.

Dedication[]

"To every young girl who has a special dream. Believe in yourself, work hard for your dream, and fight for it. Those dreams can change the world we live in."

Book description[]

"22nd December, 1899
Time is marching forward, carrying us over the threshold and pitching us, willy nilly, into a new century. The prospect of growing up in that unexplored territory is so thrilling that I fancy, if I close my eyes tight, I can almost see the process taking place! A day slips away like sand in a sand glass and then another say dawns and so we are caught up in their inevitable passage towards 1900. I bought a journal and have begun to transfer my scribblings of the last few days into it. It will record my journey into the new century. I shall call it "Twentieth-Century Girl", for that is what I intend to be!
"

"Christmas 1899. It's an exciting time to be young; the twentieth century is dawning. It's a thrilling world of new ideas, new possibilities and new inventions–phonographs, automobiles and moving pictures... Fourteen-year-old Flora is determined to take advantage of everything the new century has to offer, but how will she persuade her stuffy strait-laced father..."

"Partage le journal intime de Flora, et découvre avec elle les bouleversements du XXe siècle.
⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻
"17 août 1900. Fe ne veux pas, comme ma soeur Henrietta, faire mon entrée dans le monde et consacrer des heutes à des essayages de robes. Je ne veux pas épouser un homme comme Archie Marsh, qui a plus de moustache que de cervelle. Je veux lutter pour les droits des femmes. Je veux voyager comme Miss Kingsley. Je veux, comme grand-mère, m'occuper des autres, m'in vestir dans des causes! Je veux faire quelque chose de ma vie!""

Plot[]

Historical Note[]

The campaign for women's suffrage began in the 1860s. Women did not have the right to vote in parliamentary elections, though some had the right to vote in local elections. Leagues were formed to promote suffrage. The Women's Franchise League was one of the first to actively encourage working-class women to join. Millicent Fawcett led a joint meeting of suffrage societies in 1897, leading to the formation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The society held its first march, called the Mud March, in February 1907. It marked the start of "militant action" taken by suffragettes. A timeline of events from 1832 to 1905 is included along with ten pictures illustrating the era.

Characters[]

Main article: List of Twentieth-Century Girl characters

Author[]

Main article: Carol Drinkwater

Carol Drinkwater is a British writer, actress, and filmmaker whom resides in France. She is well known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small. Drinkwater has written books for several age groups, including her adult Olive Farm series. She wrote four books for My Story, including The Hunger, Suffragette, and Nowhere to Run. Twentieth-Century Girl is her second book for the series.

Shared continuity[]

A sequel to Twentieth-Century Girl, titled Suffragette, was released in 2003. It focuses on Dollie Baxter, to whom Flora becomes a guardian. The book also carries on the subject of women's rights.

Editions[]

Acknowledgements[]

"My special thanks to a great team at Scholastic, including Jill Sawyer, Lisa Edwards, and Ali Evans. Thanks, as always, to my agent Sophie Hicks."

Notes[]

  • The image on the cover of the first edition was provided by Popperfoto.[6]
  • Richard Jones illustrated the cover of the book's second edition as well as Cadogan Square.

References[]

See also[]


My Story
Original

The Hunger | Voyage on the Great Titanic | The Crystal Palace | Blitz | My Tudor Queen | Twentieth-Century Girl
The Great Plague | The '45 Rising | Civil War | Trafalgar | The Trenches | Battle of Britain | Mill Girl | Transported
Armada | Crimea | Bloody Tower | Indian Mutiny | Zulu War | Mayflower | Agincourt | Suffragette | Waterloo | Slave Girl
Flying Ace | Anne Boleyn and Me | D-Day | Victorian Workhouse | Spy Smuggler | Desert Danger | War Nurse
U-Boat Hunter | The Queen's Spies

1st relaunch

Princess of Egypt | Pompeii | Road to War | Roman Invasion | Viking Blood | Highway Girl | Sophie's Secret War
The Storm to Come | The Sweep's Boy | The Fall of the Blade | Pyramid of Secrets | Factory Girl | Dodger!
No Way Back | Wartime Princess | London Stories | Berlin Olympics | Lady Jane Grey | Nowhere to Run

2nd relaunch

Codename Céline

3rd relaunch

Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan | Ignatius Sancho | Princess Sophia Duleep Singh | Mary Prince

My Royal Story

Victoria | Anastasia | Cleopatra | Marie Antoinette | Elizabeth | Mary, Queen of Scots | Henry VIII's Wives

My True Story

What If They Find Us? | Hero at Dunkirk | Standing Alone | Give Us the Vote!

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