This book accompanies the exhibition Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters at Watts Gallery, which is the first to explore the lives, influence, and legacy of the seven Pattle sisters: Adeline, Julia, Sara, Mia, Louisa, Virginia and Sophia. Born and raised in India and educated in France, the sisters became renowned for their wit, talent, style and the influential artistic salons they hosted at Little Holland House in London.

Drawing on new research, and featuring essays by Emily Burns, Caroline Dakers, Gursimran Oberoi, William Dalrymple, Jeff Rosen and Marion Dell, this book reveals how the Pattle sisters helped shape nineteenth-century art, ideas and society in ways that continue to reverberate today.