There is a long history of Anglo-French friction. Part of the problem lies in events which took place over seventy years ago, during the Second World War.

The impression we have of the suffragettes, a century after their activities, is of heroic and long-suffering women who were prepared to undergo all manner of hardship in order to win the right to vote in parliamentary elections. There was though another side to the suffragettes, one of which we seldom hear. In addition to breaking windows and chaining themselves to railings, they also conducted a ferocious campaign of bombing and arson; causing explosions in places as varied as Westminster Abbey, Newcastle town centre and various railway stations and churches. This is the story of twentieth century Britain’s first terrorist campaign; the forgotten history of the suffragette bombers.