In the Suffrajitsu trilogy, May “Toupie” Lowther serves as Emmeline Pankhurst’s chauffeur and getaway driver, as well as the second-in-command of the clandestine Amazon bodyguard team.  She also appears as the protagonist in the short story The Pale Blue Ribbon and as a major supporting character in the novella The Isle of Dogs.

In reality, Toupie was a champion tennis player and fencer who was also a proficient weightlifter, jiujitsu practitioner and driver of both cars and motorcycles.  In this illustration, she referees a fencing match between two young women at MacPherson’s fencing school.