Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World

The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.

'Fabulous.' Sunday Times 'A rare gift.' Financial Times 'Passionate ... Vivid ... Timely.' Telegraph 'Readable and inspiring.' Guardian 'Compelling ... Ambitious ... Poignant.' Spectator 'Magnificent.' Kate Mosse 'Riveting.' Antonia Fraser 'A breath of fresh air.' Kate Molleson 'Fascinating.' Alexandra Harris 'Wonderful.' Claire Tomalin 'Splendid.' Miranda Seymour 'Remarkable.' Fiona Maddocks 'Pioneering.' Andrew Motion 'Brilliant' Helen Pankhurst

Ethel Smyth (b.1858): Famed  for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a  larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed  Suffragette.Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This  talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women  ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her  modernist experimentation.Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the  1919 Proms, her reputation as the 'English Strauss' never dented her  modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar’s grave alone.Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One  of Britain’s first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II’s  coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married  composition tutor. In their time, these women were celebrities.

They composed some  of the century's most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but  today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes  to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten - until  now. Leah Broad’s magnificent group biography resurrects these forgotten  voices, recounting lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and  celebrating their musical masterpieces. Lighting up a panoramic sweep of  British history over two World Wars, Quartet revolutionises the canon forever.