Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) was an immensely important writer, often considered a founder of feminist thought. Although she wrote various novels, treatises and travel books, Wollstonecraft is best remembered today for her groundbreaking A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Bee Rowlatt is a writer and journalist, and has clocked over two decades at the BBC World Service. Her writing has been published widely, including pieces for BBC Online, The Telegraph, Grazia, Die Welt, the Times, the Guardian and the Daily Mail, with regular appearances on TV and radio. Her critically acclaimed travelogue In Search of Mary (Alma Books), inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, won the Society of Authors’ K. Blundell Trust Award. She also wrote a play about Wollstonecraft, An Amazon Stept Out, which was performed at the Lyric Theatre on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue. The bestseller Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad (Penguin) was dramatised by the BBC and has been translated into numerous languages. She also contributed to Virago’s Fifty Shades of Feminism. Bee has judged the Poetry Society Young Poets’ award and the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year award. Bee is currently working on a new book and also programmes events at the British Library. She is a leading light in initiatives celebrating and continuing Wollstonecraft’s work: she chaired the Mary on the Green campaign to memorialise Mary Wollstonecraft, and is a founding trustee of the human-rights education charity the Wollstonecraft Society.