Women's rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst signs with Sceptre

Sceptre has commissioned women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst to write a non-fiction work to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK.

Suffragette descendent and campaigner Pankhurst takes the reader on a journey exploring how women’s lives have changed over the last 100 years, and how we can take things even further. Combining historical insight with inspiring argument, Deeds not Words is pitched as "essential reading" for anyone who wants to know more about how far women have come since the Suffragettes, how far we still have to go, and how we will get there.

Associate publisher Drummond Moir acquired world rights direct from the author. Moir said: "I am thrilled to be working with Helen on what I know will be a magnificent and exciting book. No-one is better placed to tell this story, contribute to one of the great debates of our times, or inspire a new generation of women – and men – to think and act differently. We warmly welcome her to the Sceptre list."

Pankhurst said: "It’s a privilege to be writing a book that sheds light on the changes to women’s lives since 1918, combining analysis and anecdotes, looking at the big picture, and sharing individual women’s personal experiences. Of interest to social historians and to feminist activists alike, Deeds not Words will examine political, economic and cultural transformations; issues around women and family life-cycles; violence against women; the impact of social media and – most critical of all – changing social norms."

Pankhurst is a women’s rights activist and senior advisor to CARE International, based in the UK and in Ethiopia. Her work in Ethiopia includes support to program development across different sectors, focused on the interests and needs of women and girls. In the UK she is a public speaker and writer on feminist issues. She also leads CARE International’s "Walk In Her Shoes" event in London on International Women’s Day.

She is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, leaders of the British suffragette movement.

The title will be published  in February 2018.