Isabella Beeton - Wonderful Woman No. 139

Isabella Beeton - 1836–1865
British Culinary Writer

Added to the album by Sarah, A Wonderful Woman

Many women from the world of food have now been included as Wonderful Women, from Elizabeth David - Wonderful Woman No. 60 to Angela Hartnett - Wonderful Woman No. 65, all very different but all having inspired something in those who have nominated them. It is fair to say that Sarah's addition of Mrs Isabella Beeton is one of the original people to ignite this type of inspiration in home cooks.

Isabella wrote a great many articles and recipes for newspapers and magazines, she wrote a monthly supplement in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine during the 1850s and 1860s.

In 1861, the first publication of The Book of Household Management was released with instant success. The book featured over 900 recipes many with illustrations and it was really the popularity of these recipes that brought Isabella such fame and notoriety. The book was also something of a guide for a Victorian 'lady-of-the-house,' it contained advice on rearing children, social etiquette, employing servents and also spoke of science, religion and industrialialism. Long before such ideas were popular, Isabella wrote about the importance of using seasonal

and local produce, the welfare of animals and an understanding of what goes into the food people eat.

A place for everything and everything in it's place.
Mrs Beeton - The Book of Household Management

In 1858, Britain suffered a particularly harsh winter and during this time Isabella turned her culinary skill to help those most in need, by opening a soup kitchen for poverty stricken children in her own home.

Isabella, who died when just 28 years old, became the first woman to have her portrait bought and hung in The National Gallery , in 1938. She is still remembered by many as a real pioneer in the art of food.

As I said in the opening paragraph, we have celebrated a number of women for their excellent careers in catering, I think though, Isabella was an original, an innovator and it is this which makes her most welcome in this album.

The true woman combines with mere tact that subtle sympathy which makes her the loved companion and friend alike of husband, children and all around her.
Isabella Beeton

Susan Sarandon - Wonderful Woman No. 138

Susan Sarandon - Born 1946
American Actress, Film Producer, Business Woman & Political Activist

Added to the album by Lowri, A Wonderful Woman

Reading up on Susan Sarandon has been an enlightening experience. I knew she was a fabulous actress, having seen many of her films, but learning about her other endeavours, I have learnt that she is a much more formidable woman than I ever knew. Thank you Lowri for your fantastic nomination.

In 1970, Susan made her film debut in Joe. She appeared on American television throughout the '70s and had roles in a number of films. In 1975, she starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which became a cult musical and one I am a huge fan of myself) and this really catapulted her into fame. She has appeared in over seventy films, including some huge box-office successes such as The Witches of Eastwick, Thelma and Louise, Little Women (an adaptation of the book by Louisa May Alcott - Wonderful Woman No. 38) and Dead Man Walking, which gained her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995. Now in the fifth decade of her acting career, she is still working hard and landing great roles, she currently has two films in post-production, including the much awaited Cloud Atlas. She has also produced some films.

Susan is the co-owner of the SPiN table tennis club, which has social clubs in four cities in the USA and Canada.

One of the most interesting things I have discovered about Susan is her political activism. She is an outspoken liberal, who has campaigned and spoke publicly about gay rights issues, the Iraq war, various human rights causes and the catholic church (in particular about the current Pope and the church having "harboured paedophiles"). She has supported a number of politicians over the years. She has also worked hard for charitable causes, she was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a spokesperson for Heifer International (a not-for-profit organisation with the vision of ending global poverty and hunger) and in 2006, Susan received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award.

Like so many of the women featured in this album, Susan's life is littered with great achievement and success but she is also wonderful for her qualities as a humanitarian, as someone who speaks out for causes which she feels strongly about and takes action when she sees something is unjust. Exactly the kind of woman we like to celebrated here.

I try to live my life every day in the present, and try not to turn a blind eye to injustice and need.
Susan Sarandon

Shirley Valentine - Wonderful Woman No. 137

Shirley Valentine - Played by Pauline Collins in the 1988 film Shirley Valentine
Fictional British Housewife

This is a very personal and emotive addition to the album for me, even just thinking about this film brings the prinkly sensation of nostalgic tears welling in my eyes. I hope no-one will mind if this particular blog is partly Shirley Valentine's story but partly mine too.

In 2004, I went to work on the Greek island, Rhodes, for a travel company. I thought I would stay for the summer, have a great time and then move on. It didn't really work out like that.

I was posted in a resort called Afandou... which wasn't really a holiday resort at all, it was a working Greek village, with dusty streets, a pebbled beach, was filled with the smells of flowers and kleftiko carried on the warm evening breeze but in the summer it became alive with British tourists and people, like me, there to work in the sunshine. From day one, I was welcomed with open arms, the Greeks still remain the friendliest people I have ever known and I also met and befriended other people who had moved to spend their lives abroad. It wasn't just the people but the village itself that seemed to hold me in a warm, maternal embrace. In all my life, I have never been more at home anywhere or felt more happy than I did in Afandou.

I spent three years coming and going from Afandou, doing seasonal jobs, finding new places to live and so on. I wanted to make it my permenent home but try as I did, I could never find work for the winter and what I earned during the 8 months of summer was never enough to support me the rest of the time. After three years, I decided I couldn't live in constant transit anymore, it was time to grow up and accept things as they were. I have been back there for holidays many times and leaving always breaks my heart. Though I now live in picturesque Sicily, I still hold out hope that one day I will find a way to return to Afandou and live, like in films, happily ever after.

Which is exactly what Shirley Valentine did. She stayed and that is why she is so wonderful to me, she made the dream happen, she made it work, did the thing I most wanted but wasn't able to do.

On the screen she transformed from a drab, down-trodden Liverpudlian housewife to an independent woman, able to enjoy life with true abandon, a woman who embraced the beauty and culture and history of, what is to me, the most wonderful country on Earth. In the end, she is completely unrecognisable from the shadow of a woman she was before. She is a heroine to me.

Στην καρδιά μου είμαι Έλληνας!!!

Madhur Jaffrey - Wonderful Woman No. 136

Madhur Jaffrey - Born 1933
Indian Actress, Cook, Food Writer and Author

Added to the album by Sarah, A Wonderful Woman

Having now done some research into the life of Mafhur Jaffrey, I feel rather ignorant. I once saw her do the 'omelette challege' on the BBC's cookery show Saturday Kitchen but I am ashamed to say that, until now, this had been my only exposure to this Wonderful Woman. I did not know that she was a celebrated actress, I did not even really know about her excellence as a cookery writer. I am grateful to Sarah for changing this and nominating her to the album.

After graduating with honours from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1957, Madhur embarked on a career in film and theatre. From the 1960s to now she has appeared in over 20 films, made in both India and the U.S.A. among them are Six Degrees of Separation, The Perfect Murder and Shakespeare Wallah, for which she was awarded the prize for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

In 1973, Madhur produced her first cook book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking

and she has subsequently produced almost 30 books, which focus on Indian, Asian and vegetarian cuisine. She has hosted numerous cookery shows on television and is now widely considered as the world authority on Indian food.

In addition to her cook books, Madhur has published four other books, which are largely about travel in India. Her latest, published in 2006, is a personal memoir about her childhood in India.

I expect there is much more to this Wonderful Woman than my research has uncovered and than I have poured into these few short blog paragraghs... what is clear though is that Madhur Jaffrey has been brilliantly successful in not one but two careers, she has perfected her craft as both an actress and a culinary writer and she is admired by countless budding cooks across the world. She is clearly a very Wonderful Woman.

A book that changed me ... Robin Hood. When I was a little girl, I would become him in my mind. It gave me the belief – nothing to do with being male or female – that I could do anything. It made me feel invulnerable. There was a pure joy at being anything I wanted to be.
Madhur Jaffrey

Raquel Welch - Wonderful Woman No. 135

Raquel Welch - Born 1940
American Actress, Television Personality and Business Woman

Added to the album by Tay, A Wonderful Man

Well I’d like to spin a yarn about how much I admired her perfect timing or on screen poise..but that would be total bollocks... Growing up in the 70s... there was only one woman we all talked about at school. She was such an icon to us... Probably not for the right reasons I suggested her... but to me and countless other men of a certain age… Sex on legs!! ICON!
Tay

A few of the other women in the album have been nominated for similar reasons. In my mind, being beautiful alone isn't qualification enough to this celebration of Wonderful Women, however, as in the cases of the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis - Wonderful Woman No. 111 and Twiggy - Wonderful Woman No. 120, Raquel Welch is much more than just a pretty face and a toned body, her life achievements make her worthy of the title Wonderful Woman.

Raquel's career started as a Weather Forecaster on local television in San Diego, U.S.A. She went on to move to Hollywood, where she had a number of bit-parts in film and on TV before appearing in her most memorable role in 1966, when she starred in One Million Years B.C., launching her iconic image as a cave woman in a fur bikini. In total, Raquel has appeared in almost forty motion pictures, including the 1974 version of The Three Musketeers, for which she was awarded a Golden Globe.

As well as her wonderful career as an Actress, Raquel has founded her own businesses, including a signature line of wigs, a jewellery collection and a skincare range.

As with a number of other women celebrated in this album, though now in her seventies, Raquel is still looking great, her beauty and feminine allure unchanged by the passage of time.

She was, and still is, an iconic beauty but more than that, a great Actress, a successful career woman and most definitely a Wonderful Woman.

There aren't any hard women, only soft men.
Raquel Welch

Ellen MacArthur - Wonderful Woman No. 134

Ellen MacArthur - Born 1976
British Yachtswoman

Added to the album by Gavin, A Wonderful Man

For feats of extreme endurance, and as a test of character against overwhelming odds, solo sailing the Atlantic and then again around the World take some beating. Ellen managed to do both, through thick and thin, and in record times, as we witnessed in her much-parodied but complulsive video diaries. Massive effort and courage, and a great inspiration.
Gavin

When Gavin suggested Ellen MacArthur to the Wonderful Women album, it was one of those times when I thought "Yes. Why didn't I think of her?" - she really embodies the spirit of this celebration of women; daring, individual, groundbreaking, strong.

Ellen's passion for sailing started at an early age, indeed she saved her pocket money for years in order to buy her first vessel. She began competing whilst still a schoolgirl.

Ellen has broken a good number of world records in sailing, and still holds some of these records today. Among her many achievements are; sailing from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes in 2000, she set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women (7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes) in 2004 and she fulfilled the incredible task of breaking the world record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe (71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds ) in 2005.

Ellen has now retired from her sailing career, she has since founded the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, which helps children and young adults aged between 8-24 to regain their confidence, after suffering with cancer, through sailing. The charity not only teaches sailing skills but also organises sailing trips for those recovering from illness.

Once again, a Wonderful Woman who has not only been amazingly successful in one career but has also chosen to use her success and notoriety for the good of others. Her strength, courage and vigour really are exceptional and she is a perfect addition to this album.

In weak moments I always turn round and get strong.
Ellen MacArthur

Madonna - Wonderful Woman No. 133

Madonna - Born 1958
American Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Film Director, Author, Dancer & Business Woman

Added to the album by Becky, A Wonderful Stranger

Back in February, I was in the ladies loos at TV21 in Manchester's Northern Quarter, as I applied my lip-gloss in the mirror, a friend appeared from one of the cubicles. The friend, Libbie, commented on how much she liked the Wonderful Women album, which I had recently started on Facebook and how she enjoyed seeing the new women added in her newsfeed. Another girl in the bar's toilets (who I later identified as Becky) joined in with the conversation and suggested that I add Madonna. She said Madonna had been a huge inspiration over the years, that she had felt empowered by her and that she had been an influence as she had grown up, a role model of a strong, independent woman. It was an impassioned nomination, I added Madonna to the album the following day.

As it happens, I had been a teenage Madonna fan myself. I enjoyed her catchy pop songs but mostly, I liked her changing image and her fiestiness, her uniqueness and her boldness.

Madonna started her working life as a dancer, before forming a band and becoming a singer. Her first solo single, Everybody, was released in 1982 and she went on to release a dizzying number of singles with huge chart success, among those singles are a mass of unforgetable classics, such as Like A Virgin, Holiday and Vogue. She has release fifteen albums, with further compilations and live albums too. She has sold over 300 million records worldwide

and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's best-selling female recording artist in history. She is celebrated as one of the best stage performers in music, her live shows really groundbreaking and thoroughly entertaining. Summerising Madonna's recording career in just a paragraph is incredibly difficult, the list of awards is overwhelming, the list of songs I'd like to mention is ridiculously long and, in all honesty, whatever I write, I am destined to leave something of major importance out - so, let me just say, her success as a singer and songwriter is pheonmenal and this alone would qualify Madonna as a very worthy Wonderful Woman.

But it doesn't just end there, the list of other avenues Madonna's career has taken is massive and she has thrust herself into all that she has

done with astonishing gusto.

In 1979, Madonna appeared in her first film A Certain Sacrifice, playing the leading role. She has starred in 19 films and a number of television shows, there are some great movies among them, including Desperately Seeking Susan, A League of Their Own and Evita - for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. She has also directed two films Filth and Wisdom and the Wallis Simpson biopic W.E.

Madonna has published many books, I remember well the controversy surrounding the release of her debut coffee table book Sex in 1992 - I was a teenage school girl at the time, there was no way my mother would have allowed me access to such a book, so I was thrilled when a girl called Sarah smuggled her copy into school. There are several other releases which focus on different moments in Madonna's varied career. In 2003, the first of Madonna's children's books, The English Roses, was published and since she has written and published a number of other books for children.

She's an astute business woman too. Among her ventures have been a fashion label and fitness centres but most notably, her own record label, Maverick, which has signed the likes of Alanis Morissette, Muse and The Prodigy.

Madonna herself is, of course, a huge brand. She's recreated her image countless times but always there is the clear determination, strength of character and complete self-belief. I am glad I was a teenager at the time of Madonna's music career height, I'm sure it inspired many other girls like Becky and I, made us see how successful and powerful a woman alone could be, sexually liberated, career driven, vibrant, determined - a wonderful role-model to have.

I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.
Madonna

Joanna Lumley - Wonderful Woman No. 132

Joanna Lumley - Born 1946
British Actress, Model, Television Presenter, Writer and Political Activist

Added to the album by Howie, A Wonderful Man

Like so many of the women in this album, labelling Joanna Lumley as one thing or another is impossible. Her career has been rich and varied, and she has actively campaigned and supported causes in which she believes. I have read several newspaper ariticles about her over the last few day, in preparation for writing this blog post, a phrase that is repeated over and over again is national treasure, for once, I feel this reference is spot on.

Joanna's started her career as a photographic model in the 1960s. At the end of the '60s, she moved on to work in acting, her first role in the film Some Girls Do. She has since appeared in numerous films, including On Her Majesty's Secret Service where she joined the prestigious list of actresses who have played Bond Girls. Predominantly, Joanna's most famous roles have been on television, among her many roles she briefly appeared in Britain's most loved soap Coronation Street, played Purdey in The New Avengers - for which she won a BAFTA award and in 1992, she burst onto television screens as the unforgettable Patsy in Jennifer Saunders' (Wonderful Woman No. 92) Absolutely Fabulous, a role she played for more than a decade and for which she recieved a further two BAFTA awards. She is also credited with numerous theatre roles throughout her lengthy career.

As well as appearing on television as an actress, Joanna has made numerous documentaries from around the globe. She has also written several books, including a number of personal memoirs.

Joanna supports and champions a number of charities and campaigns, she is patron of a number of charities and speaks out about the causes she holds dear. Most famously, Joanna was the face of the campaign to give

Ghurka veterans the right to settle in Great Britain. This particular fight was very personal to Joanna, her grandfather, Colonel Leslie Weir, was a political officer of the British Raj in India, who travelled extensively in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet, was friends with the 13th Dalai Lama and her father, Major James Lumley, was an officer in the Gurkha Rifles, indeed Joanna was born in India due to her father's position and was brought up in Hong Kong and Malaysia because of the Gurkha regiment. After a very public battle with the UK government, during which Joanna spoke passionately and fought tirelessly, the mandate was announced for all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 to be allowed to settle in Britain. Joanna describes this as her most humbling experience and the proudest moment of her life.

Joanna is a particular Wonderful Woman, one we can celebrate like many of the others, for her fantastic career which is still going though now in it's sixth decade, for her zest for life and individuality but also one who has took her fame and notoriety and used it for the good of others, who has stood firm on causes she is really passionate about... and that, is truly wonderful

If you're an enthusiast and you love the world like I do, it comes naturally. But I think charity must become more fun to give, more interactive and imaginative.
Joanna Lumley