Meetings With Remarkable Women * Katrina Honeyman

It is in fact a great sadness for me that I never met Katrina Honeyman except through her books, though I would have dearly loved to have met her in person. And even sadder is the fact that Katrina died aged 61 late last year of cancer, when she had so much more to give.

I can only remember her now from her enthralling and meticulous histories of the textile industry in the north of England and these books which explore the role of children and women in the Industrial Revolution. It was a total paradigm shift to contemplate not simply the exploitation of women and children in early industrialization, but their significance to the growth and development of the economy. Based at Leeds University, Katrina was a former editor of Textile History and wrote and collaborated on many books.