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.