1. The Virginian

Nancy Astor was the first woman to take a seat in the British Parliament.

Born in 1879, hers was a fascinating life: from straitened beginnings in the Civil War-ravaged Deep South of America, to marriage into one of the world's richest families.

A straight-talking campaign conducted door-to-door in one of the most deprived areas of Plymouth, brought her a political career lasting over two decades from 1919 to 1945.

Far from being a hardened campaigner who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, she was already near the centre of ruling society, having married one of the richest men in the world.

She was not even British, yet she became a trailblazer and beacon for the generations of women who would follow her into Parliament.

Adrian Fort's biography abridged in five parts by Alison Joseph.

Read by Anna Maxwell Martin.

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2012.