Helena signing copies of 'Railwaywomen'
at the National Railway Museum
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Glenda Jackson MP at the launch of
'Railwaywomen' at the House of Commons
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A coach named "Helena" at the
Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway
An award-winning author and publisher
The holder of a BSc Honours degree in Social Science and Social History, Helena Wojtczak is a researcher, writer and speaker on women's history. She occasionally gives public talks and lectures and speaks at conferences at universities and museums.
She is an occasional tutor in women's history and the methodology of research for the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton. She has written for the Oxford University Press, Ashgate, the TSSA, the RMT and Hunter House Publishing, as well as numerous newspapers and magazines, and also for various websites including The Victorian Web and Encyclopaedia Titanica, and has appeared on TV and BBC radio.
Her books have received critical acclaim from Dr Dale Spender, Dr Gerry Holloway, Dr Gillian Reynolds, Dr Jo Stanley, Dr Terry Gourvish, the Rt Hon. Tony Benn MP, Glenda Jackson MP, Michael Foster MP, New Statesman, Morning Star, Labour Research Magazine, Steam World Magazine, the President of the RMT, Women's History Review, Gender, Work and Organisation, The Argus, Sussex Express, Open History Magazine, Backtrack, the British Association for British History, Christian Wolmar, Adrian Vaughan, Ray Hatley and many others.
In 2007 Railwaywomen won the joint Writers' News Magazine / David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Award for Best Non Fiction Book and the Silver Cup and prize for Self-Published Book of the Year. Notable Sussex Women won the prize for the Best Local Book, 2009.
Books
Notable Sussex Women (2008)
Railwaywomen (2005)
Women of Victorian Sussex (2003)
Women of Victorian Hastings (2002)
Notable Women of Victorian Hastings (2002)
Gendered Journeys, Mobile Emotions (contributor) (2009)
The Oxford Companion to British Railway History (contributor) (1999)
Websites
Women of Victorian Hastings and St Leonards
A Century of Railwaywomen 1900~2000
British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance
Sussex Women
Publishing
Helena owns and runs the Hastings Press, carrying out most of the proofreading, editing, book cover design, typesetting, website design and maintenance and administration. She runs occasional public seminars on self-publishing and advises individual authors by private consultation.
Railways
At the age of 19 Helena became the first woman employed as a guard by British Rail. Read about her experiences of being a woman recruited and trained in a male industry here.
Working on the railways led her to research and write the award-winning book Railwaywomen.
Since being launched at the House of Commons, at the TUC Conference and at the
National Railway Museum. The book has received
considerable acclaim including a plethora of excellent reviews.
Now Britain's foremost authority on the history of women working on the railways, she has acted as a consultant
historian to the National Railway Museum and gives illustrated presentations on the subject, most recently at the Swedish State Railway Museum in Gavle, and (forthcoming) at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Personal
Born in Sussex, Helena Wojtczak (pronounced 'Voy-t-chak') lived in London for twenty-two years and is now happily back in her native county. Her pet hate is being called "Helen".
Home page email Helena
