FROM Joan of Arc and Mary Seacole to Florence Nightingale and Agatha Christie, from the Mongolian princess Khutlan to Rosa Parks, author Kate Mosse will be highlighting them all in her first theatre tour. 

Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World will also cover notorious 18th century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Reid, Beatrix Potter, legendary English footballer Lily Parr and many others.

The author of bestsellers like Labyrinth, The Burning Chambers and The Taxidermist’s Daughter spent lockdown writing the book on which the show is based, Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries.

“The book, is a celebration of nearly 1,000 incredible women from all periods of history and all corners of the globe,” she explains. The tour will be the same. 

“It was my lockdown project, researching all these amazing women, I wouldn’t have had time to do it otherwise. And then I thought ‘I’d just really enjoy sharing these stories with bigger audiences’.”

Kate labels the show her “love letter to history”, adding: “There will be music, props, a proper set, pictures… and me. 

“As well as plenty fun facts and ‘did-you-knows’, I’ll tell the life stories of some of the most interesting, most inspiring, most astonishing women from the book.”

One of the most impressive women in the show is the great British footballer, Preston’s finest, Lily Parr. She will be featured in films of the day and a prop will be an original 1920s football.

“She’s a legend who scored more than 1,000 goals in her time,” says Kate.

“When people say fans don’t want to watch women playing football, that’s just not true. Women’s football was the biggest sport in the early 20th century, particularly when most men were away in the trenches during the First World War.” 

A match on Boxing Day in 1920 between the leading women’s teams – Lily Parr playing for Dick Kerr’s Ladies – was watched by 48,000 people, the biggest crowd for a women’s match until the Lionesses won the European Cup Final in 2022.

The audience will get the chance to highlight more women from history. “I’ll be asking as they leave to nominate the one woman from history they would have put in my book,” says Kate. 

“The audience and I will be building a massive library of women, many more even than the thousand I mention in my book.”

Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries will be at G Live in Guildford on Tuesday 14 March.