The Rise of the Lionesses with Carrie Dunn (MK Lit Fest Autumn Festival 13-15 Oct 2023)

As World Cup finalists and Euro 22 Champions, England’s Lionesses are now on the front and back pages, on prime-time TV, and in the national honours lists for their contribution to their sport and to society. Today they are top athletes – and top celebrities – but in 1921 the Football Association banned women’s football, pronouncing it ‘quite unsuitable for females’. That ban lasted fifty years.

Now, leading sports writer Carrie Dunn shines a light on the evolution of women’s football and its extraordinary rise. Carrie discusses the subversive women who defied the restrictions and laid the foundations for today’s Lionesses – and the obstacles that today’s players and the next generation of girls still need to overcome. Her special access to key players, on and off the pitch, gives her a unique insight into the massively popular sport at this crucial moment in its history.

About Carrie Dunn
Carrie Dunn is a writer and journalist who has covered the last three Women’s World Cups for the Times and Eurosport, and is a regular voice on BBC radio as well as The Athletic Women’s Football Podcast. She has a PhD in sport sociology, and her particular research specialism is in women’s experience of sport.

Carrie’s new book, Woman Up, is published in October 2023 and provides an inspirational account of women’s football’s painful past and its exciting future, including first-hand accounts from leading female players. Her recent books include Unsuitable for Females: The Rise of the Lionesses and Women’s Football in England, The Pride of the Lionesses, nominated as Football Book of the Year in 2020, and a sequel to The Roar of the Lionesses: Women’s Football in England, one of the Guardian’s best sports books of 2016.

Carrie’s own footballing career began – and ended – with the Junior Hatters’ supporters’ club in her hometown of Luton.