Five Evil Women Joanna Bourke
Event details
Why do certain women become icons of evil?
Joanna Bourke, author of Five Evil Women, will provide a critical, comparative history of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Homolka and Karla Faye Tucker.
Examining their lives, crimes and cultural reception in the UK, US and Canada, Joanna will ask how violence committed by women is understood, judged and remembered. Going beyond moral outrage or tabloid headlines, she will explore how concepts of 'evil' are shaped by history, belief systems and social context.
Join Joanna as through historical and ethical reflections, she offers a deeper, more critical engagement with female violence, and considers how society should respond to those who commit acts of unimaginable harm.
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
About the speaker
Joanna Bourke OBE is Professor Emerita of History at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also Professor Emerita of Rhetoric at Gresham College, UK. Her many books include Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion, 2026) and Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence (Reaktion, 2022).
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