Sheilas

An entertaining romp through Australian history that celebrates the badass sheroes we were never taught about in school and who deserve to be printed on our money, goddamn it!

It's been said that 'well-behaved women seldom make history', but the handful of white boys who wrote our history books conveniently left most of them out. Whoops! To rectify this situation, Eliza Reilly is setting out to revive the forgotten stories of the badass Sheilas of Australian history.

Chain yourself to pub counters with the determined Merle Thornton, fight for Indigenous rights alongside Faith Bandler, and lure forlorn sailors with swimmer-slash-mermaid Annette Kellerman. Deceive cranky soldiers with bushranger Mary Ann Bugg, infiltrate Nazi strongholds on the back of Nancy Wake's bike - and much, much more.

Cracking with satirical wit and whole-hearted admiration, Sheilas is a cheeky, funny, inspirational celebration of the tough-titted ladies who hiked up their petticoats and fly-kicked down the doors of opportunity for modern Australia.

Praise for Sheilas:

'A welcome and witty contribution towards redressing the balance - a must-read.' - Noni Hazlehurst

'If Kathy Lette and Monty Python had a love child, that freak would be Eliza Reilly. Lush, loose and liberated from academic orthodoxy, Reilly has the labia majoras to ask the simple but earth-quaking question: what were the women doing? As it happens: Plenty! Sheilas is a glorious romp through the Australian history you didn't learn at school. Funny and fearless, this is the book you'll want your daughters to read and your sons to worship.' - Clare Wright

'Eliza highlights an array of awesome, innovative, determined and defiant Australian women with meticulous research and a wicked sense of humour. This is the history book I've been hanging out for.' - Jane Kennedy