THE centenary of some women being granted the right to vote for the first time is to be marked by a series of events at Blackwell's Bookshop.

From February until the end of the year staff at Blackwell’s Broad Street store will host a series of events as part of commemorations taking place across the UK, including others in Oxford.

On March 6 the Bodleian’s Weston Library will launch Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared, which runs until February 2019.

The exhibition celebrates the achievements of women who dared to do the unexpected and displays some of the Bodleian’s most treasured items.

Bethan Kitchen, events coordinator for Blackwell’s, said there would be events across the city to mark the anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave women over the age of 30 who owned property the right to vote.

She added that one of the first highlights would be the visit to the store on February 15 of author Juno Dawson, to talk about her new book The Gender Games.

Juno Dawson writes young adult fiction and non-fiction on LGBT issues.

Former Green city councillor Nuala Young spent a night in jail in 1982 for taking part in a nuclear disarmament blockade at the Upper Heyford airbase.

In recent years she has taken an interest in the suffrage movement and, as well as running tours on Inspector Morse and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, she has explained to tourists the suffrage movement’s connections with Oxford.

She said there should be more recognition of the suffrage movement in the city, perhaps with a plaque outside St John’s College in St Giles', where there was a major rally in 1912.

Ms Young added: “I am delighted there is a such a focus in Oxford this year on the suffrage movement.

“Perhaps there hasn’t been enough attention given to it in the past but there certainly will be this year.

“The Oxford International Women’s Festival organisers are planning to stage a debate on March 8, with people dressed in clothes from the period.”

The women’s festival, taking place at different venues, will run from February 24 to March 11.

During a suffrage movement rally in St Giles' in 1912, led by Sylvia Pankhurst, students pelted her with stones and she fled in a hackney cab.

The following year college boathouses were set on fire and Magdalen College students were accused of reacting by trashing a women’s club.

A photo from the Oxford Journal Illustrated features non-militant suffragists marching from Carlisle to London.

They reached Oxford on July 19, 1913.

Women over 30 got the right to vote in 1918 while in 1928 the age was lowered to 21.