The Edinburgh Seven were a group of seven women who began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. These were all women interested in treating other women, because many women would often suffer in silence rather than be examined by a male doctor. But getting admitted to medical school was another matter.

The author tells the story of these brave pioneering women who broke the medical glass ceiling, but she does it with a rather large amount of hyperbole, hagiography, and a great deal of exclamation marks: “Enter centre-stage the female medical students of Edinburgh!” “This was an incredible development!” “But remarkably, the early vote went in her favour!” And so on.

The florid style of writing along with the practical elevation to sainthood of these women made it difficult for me to take the content of this book as seriously as it deserves. Today, more than half of all U.S. medical school students, for example, are women. This reality was made possible in part because of the determination of these seven pioneers, as well as those who joined them. I wish the author used a tone more befitting of the subject matter, and a more realistic assessment of who these women - human beings, after all, actually were. ( )