From the Amazons to the Ukraine conflict, women have always been on the front line of war: this is their surprising and heroic history.

Sarah Percy is Associate Professor at the University of Queensland. She was formerly Fellow in International Relations at Merton College, Oxford, where she was on the steering committee of the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War. Author and presenter of an acclaimed ABC radio series on the Cold War, her acclaimed previous book, Mercenaries, examined another unconventional military history, over multiple locations, from the medieval period until the present day. This is her first trade book.