The Mutual Admiration Society

How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women

By: Mo Moulton

Narrated by: Lorna Bennett

A group biography of renowned crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers and the Oxford women who stood at the vanguard of equal rights

Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human.

Dubbing themselves the Mutual Admiration Society, Sayers and her classmates remained lifelong friends and collaborators as they fought for a truly democratic culture that acknowledged their equal humanity. A celebration of feminism and female friendship, The Mutual Admiration Society offers crucial insight into Dorothy L. Sayers and her world.

©2019 Mo Moulton (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Trailblazing women brought to life

In this extremely well researched book, Dr. Moulton illuminates the intellectual and emotional lives of of Dorothy L Sayers and her college classmates as they blazed new trails for women in 20th century Britain. Highly recommend!

Terrible audio editing

Seems like there was zero audio editing. The comments and pauses needed by the narrator are left in the recording. Poor quality control by Audible.

Interesting but irritating narration

I enjoyed this glimpse into the wider context of Dorothy Sayers' female friendships; gave me a much fuller sense of her personality and concerns. However, I found the narration continually annoying. The narrator had different voices for each character, but the editing was done so clumsily that there was often a pause and a hitch before a new voice spoke that quite spoiled the rhythm of the prose. Also the voice for Susan was so unnecessarily masculinized it seemed like it was stoking parodies of "butch" lesbians which I found rather offensive, verging on homophobic.

Book okay, narration/editing horrid

Altho book almost okay, editing was horrid. The disruptions were so annoying, I just could not continue to listen. Will look for a better book to read or listen to about Sayers. Why call Sayers DLS throughout the book?