Overview of Cicily Fairfield (aka Dame Rebecca West)

The youngest family member was Cicily Fairfield (known as Cissy). a journalist and is better known under her pen name of Dame Rebecca West.

Like her sisters, Cicily took part in suffragette street protests and was involved selling suffragette newspapers from the age of 14. She wrote in a range of publications, including The Freewoman. This short lived and controversial publication was banned from WHSmith (because it advocated free love among other controversial topics) and was the initial reason for her to adopt a pen name.

She argued that the suffrage movement strengthened by the comments of the opposition and wrote “Women, listening to anti-suffrage speeches, for the first time knew what many men really thought of them."

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