Helena Wojtczak (right) wrote biographies of 580 outstanding, famous, eminent or pioneering women who were born, lived or died in Sussex.

The 21 from Eastbourne include author Angela Carter, illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell and novelist Ada Bayly, who wrote under the pseudonym of Edna Lyall.

A favourite of Helena's is Lady Louisa Goldsmid, who lived at Red Lodge in Devonshire Place, Eastbourne, in the late 19th century.

The feminist campaigned for fair wages for female factory workers, supported the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women and paid for three scholarships for female pianists at the Royal College of Music.

When she died she left a major bequest for the Princess Alice Memorial Hospital.

Helena said each woman was outstanding in her own right, not just as wives or because they were titled. Those featured span two centuries.

The writer said, "Ten years ago I ended my 20-year career on the railways though an accident at work and spent the long, empty hours at my local reference library looking up various things that interested me, such as local history, especially anything to do with women."

She produced a book on women in Victorian Hastings, titled Railwaywomen, a history of women working on the railways.

"Two years ago, prompted by my annoyance at seeing so many local history websites and guidebooks which include only men in their lists of notable former residents, I began to search for their female counterparts and found 580 notable women of Sussex, including 44 with damehoods, seven MPs and eight who received medals for heroism during the First and Second World Wars."

She now plans to write the histories of the notable women of other South East counties.

Notable Sussex Women: 580 Biographical Sketches is available at Harpers Bookshop in Grove Road, Eastbourne and Waterstones in Terminus Road.
Signed copies can be bought by sending £19.99 to Hastings Press, 21 Silchester Road, St Leonards TN38 0JB.