They knew they were changing history. They didn't know they would change each other.
Following the unlikely friendship of four of the first ever women to study at Oxford University- a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that has changed forever.
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world's most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiance on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way - and her own friends - for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won't be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone - even The Eights - if she is to succeed.
But Oxford's dreaming spires cast a dark shadow- in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
About the Author
Joanna Miller was raised in Cambridge and studied English at Exeter College, Oxford. After a decade working in education, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business. She has recently graduated from Oxford again, with a diploma in creative writing. She lives with her husband and three children in Hertfordshire. The Eights is her first novel.
Industry Reviews
An entertaining and moving imagining of four smart women dealing with the engrained misogyny of the time. I came to love and admire the four as if they were my sisters * Tracy Chevalier *
My book of the year. The writing is wonderful, the subject fascinating and the storylines utterly absorbing. I'm so sad I've finished it. I loved everything about this book. I Adored it * Jill Mansell *
I so enjoyed The Eights and became completely involved in the lives of the four pioneering heroines whose friendship is the beating heart of the book * CLARE CHAMBERS, author of Small Pleasures *
I loved this story of the first women admitted to Oxford University - and its gorgeously written characters. Rooted strongly in time and place, this novel transports you * Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things *
A story about women taking their place in a man's world, The Eights beautifully captures the power of friendship and love in the wake of extraordinary loss. It was a pleasure to read * Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words *
A heartfelt, thoughtful and engaging book about the first women students to go to Oxford University - their friendships, their secrets, their ambitions and their opponents - in the tremulous, haunted years immediately after the First World War. Joanna Miller brings 1920s Oxford to life with a vivid immediacy and makes us care deeply about four young women who find themselves pioneers in a strange new world, trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of war. A thoroughly lovely debut that will win many hearts, with its celebration of friendship and the persistence of hope * Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre *
