We are very pleased to announce Sophie Weinberg’s ‘The Matrilineal Printing House: Recovering the Printing Lineage of Widow Stationers in the Seventeenth-Century English Book Trade’ the winner of our 2025 MA dissertation prize. Sophie examined two examples of intergenerational female inheritance of print shops: the work of Anne Griffin and Sarah Griffin, who both married into the same family and then inherited and ran the printing business; and an exploration of three generations of women within the same matrilineal line, Ellen Cotes, Mary Clark and Anne Motte. Sophie questioned the networks and systems that women engaged with which could be hostile. The judges thought this was a thoughtful, well-written dissertation which had a convincing argument throughout. Well done Sophie! 

Martha Hornett’s ‘Were There Books in Her Basket? Investigating Working Women’s Reading in the British Women’s Co-operative Society 1884-1932’ was highly commended. The judges enjoyed reading this very interesting dissertation which had a good argument and source analysis. Well done Martha!