Filling in some of the history of British and Irish women's athletics is "Lady Icarus" by athletics journalist Lindie Naughton, the first full-length biography of the flamboyant athlete and aviator Lady Mary Heath.
In the early 1920s, Lady Mary, then known as Sophie Mary Eliott Lynn, was one of the founders of the WAAA, inspired by the 1921 Women's World Games held in Monte Carlo. She started attending local meets in her native Ireland that summer, competing in the sprints and long jump. Indeed, her height of 4ft 9ins (1.447m) jumped scissors-style at a sports day held in Ballygar, Co Galway, equalled the best known performance in the world at that time.
When she moved to London in 1922, she quickly became one of the best known women athletes of the time, travelling to meets in Paris and Scandinavia and representing the WAAA at International Olympic Council meetings.
She set a disputed world record for the high jump of 1.48 at Brentwood, London in August 1923, just a few weeks after she had won the javelin at the first ever WAAA Championships. Her book, "Athletics for Women and Girls", published in 1925, enthusiastically promoted athletics as the ideal sport for women.
A few years later, Lady Mary became the first person to fly a small plane from Cape Town to London and was celebrated world wide. Only an unfortunate accident in 1929 while in the USA cut short a remarkable career.