'Not all Essex girls are party girls. They can be sages, martyrs, leaders. In her neat and provocative little book, Sarah Perry celebrates their courage and vivacity.' Hilary Mantel A defence and celebration of the Essex Girl by the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent Essex Girls are disreputable, disrespectful and disobedient. They speak out of turn, too loudly and too often, in an accent irritating to the ruling classes. Their bodies are hyper-sexualised and irredeemably vulgar. They are given to intricate and voluble squabbling. They do not apologise for any of this. And why should they? In this exhilarating feminist defence of the Essex girl, Sarah Perry re-examines her relationship with her much maligned home county. She summons its most unquiet spirits, from Protestant martyr Rose Allin to the indomitable Abolitionist Anne Knight, sitting them alongside Audre Lorde, Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau, and showing us that the Essex girl is not bound by geography. She is a type, representing a very particular kind of female agency, and a very particular kind of disdain: she contains a multitude of women, and it is time to celebrate them.

The scandalous history of the women of Essex.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Lauren Goodger! Before The Only Way is Essex Lauren was just an ordinary girl, working as a secretary and trying to build a life with her long-term boyfriend Mark Wright. Now she's constantly followed by the paparazzi; she can't wear a bikini without her weight being scrutinised and her private life is played out on the front pages of the tabloids. Lauren may be a celebrity who goes to red carpet events, dates gorgeous men, and has her own business, but she's also a down-to-earth girl who loves to laugh and treasures her friends and family. In Secrets of an Essex Girl, Lauren lifts the lid on the truth behind the headlines. She shares her beauty regime, the real facts about her relationships and her break-up with Mark, and describes how her friends and family have pulled her through the tough times. So much has been written about Lauren but now it's her turn to set the record straight. In this heartfelt account, she opens up about all the incredible ups and downs of her rollercoaster life. Told with searing honesty, this is Lauren as you've never seen her before.

'So you think because you've watched TOWIE you've got us Essex Girls figured out? You don't know the half of it. Events in this book are so shameless that I've had to change all the names, but everything that happens is real.' Becci Fox is an Essex girl through and through. She just wants to be comfortable and spoilt, taken out to nice places and showered with presents. And she is. She lives in the grounds of her parents' manor house, drives a Mercedes SLK and had a boob job when she was nineteen. She's ambitious, working hard during the day as a bridal buyer. And at night she plays hard, clubbing at Sugar Hut and Faces, mixing with celebrities and soap stars. She knows how to handle the footballers who buy you Cristal champagne and make you feel like the most special person in the room (only they've got five other girls on speed dial). But when she falls for a sexy racing driver, is she finally out of her league? Becci shares six dramatic months in her life as she and her friends have fun, fall in love, handle heartache and betrayal, and even plan a big fat Essex wedding.

“Essex Girl: a young working-class woman from the Essex area, typically considered as being unintelligent, materialistic, devoid of taste and sexually promiscuous.” – Collins English Dictionary Kirsty is a sixteen-year-old girl growing up in '00s Brentwood. She likes WKD, Elton John, Pie & Mash and Charlie Red body spray. She's on a quest to win Sexy Ricky's heart and pass her GCSEs. She also has a secret to tell you. One she can't tell anyone else. Follow Kirsty's story through the house parties and Irish pubs of Essex. From West Ham matches to choir practice, pre-drinks to registration, she will tell you what it's really like to be an Essex Girl.

“Essex Girl: a young working-class woman from the Essex area, typically considered as being unintelligent, materialistic, devoid of taste and sexually promiscuous.” – Collins English Dictionary Kirsty is a sixteen-year-old girl growing up in '00s Brentwood. She likes WKD, Elton John, Pie & Mash and Charlie Red body spray. She's on a quest to win Sexy Ricky's heart and pass her GCSEs. She also has a secret to tell you. One she can't tell anyone else. Follow Kirsty's story through the house parties and Irish pubs of Essex. From West Ham matches to choir practice, pre-drinks to registration, she will tell you what it's really like to be an Essex Girl.

Isabelle d’Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black-eyed blond and an art lover and collector. Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but naïve Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan. Although he is more than twice their age, openly lives with his mistress, and is reputedly trying to eliminate the current duke by nefarious means, Ludovico Sforza is Isabella’s match in intellect and passion for all things of beauty. Only he would allow her to fulfill her destiny: to reign over one of the world’s most powerful and enlightened realms and be immortalized in oil by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Isabella vows that she will not rest until she wins her true fate, and the two sisters compete for supremacy in the illustrious courts of Europe. A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports you back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo’s Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great master—not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart.