The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman

Sir Isaac Harman, international Bread and Cake magnate, suffers an onslaught of women. Waitresses strike at his London tea shops; invading dowagers drive him into hiding in his garden shed; his suffragist sister-in-law nabs his complimentary tickets to a Liberal meeting and goes on the rampage. Trembling, he locks up his mild young wife and underlines passages in The Taming of the Shrew. But things have gone too far – Lady Harman picks up a poker and makes a break for freedom.

Her exploits cause a buzz at the smart dinner tables of literary, feminist and political circles. Everyone is full of advice, and no one is more eager than Mr Brumley, the complacent middle-aged writer who finds himself transformed into a panting knight errant. But Ellen Harman outdistances all the men around her …

H. G. Wells was known for his support for women’s suffrage and was one of the most effective male voices for early feminism. The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman is a witty, sardonic and thoughtful novel about sex, society and women’s independence.