This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. A single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women.

Open up this cabinet of curiosities and you'll find objects that have been highly esteemed – even, like the Bayeux tapestry, fought over by nations – and others that are humble and domestic. Some (like a 16th century glass dildo) are objects of female pleasure, some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. There are artefacts of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it; examples of female rebellion and of self-revelation; objects that are inspiring, curious or (like radium-laced chocolate) just fundamentally ill-conceived.

Through the variety and nuance in all these 101 objects, Annabelle Hirsch has created a new history – teeming, unexpected, witty and always illuminating. This overdue corrective reveals what a healed femur says about civilisation, what men have to fear from hat pins, and it shows that the past has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women that peopled it.

Full cast of narrators:

Gillian Anderson

Katy Hessel

Anita Rani

Jackie Kay

Len Pennie

Annabelle Hirsch

Shirley Manson

Rebecca Solnit

Sandi Toksvig

Marina Hyde

Naomi Shimada

Harriet Walter

Celia Imrie

Kate Manne

Margaret Atwood

Janina Ramirez

Doon Mackichan

Helen Mirren

Elif Shafak

Kate Mosse

Miriam Margolyes

Val McDermid

Caitlin Moran

Dolly Alderton

Olivia Colman

Sasha Lane

Adjoa Andoh

Elizabeth Acevedo

Sue Perkins

Ece Temelkuran

Mary Ann Sieghart

Alison Steadman

Minnie Driver

Rebecca Hall

Krista Tippett

Patience Agbabi

Michelle Newell

Jeanette Winterson

Geraldine James

Sinead Cusack

Tiya Miles

Crystal Clarke

Louise Brealey

Leila Slimani

Helena Kennedy

Samin Nosrat

Anna Holmes

Michelle Gomez

India Knight

Natascha McElhone

Lauren Elkin

Kate Winslet

Helena Bonham Carter

Sylvia Whitman

Noma Dumezweni

Meera Syal

Carey Mulligan

Denise Gough

Jacqueline Wilson

Siri Hustvedt

Gaby Wood

Sophie Hunter

Lisa Kainde Diaz

Annabel Mullion

Sharleen Spiteri

Jennifer Clement

Julia Gillard

Jude Kelly

Kerry Fox

Ruthie Rogers

Maggie Smith

Hanna Schygulla

Kübra Gümüsay

Erica Wagner

Sandra Huller

Jodie Whittaker

Nicola Sturgeon

Juliet Stevenson

Sally Phillips

Angelica Houston

Lisa Dwan

Ruth Ozeki

Joanna Lumley

Cynthia Erivo

Eleanor Updegraff

Sinéad Gleeson

Salena Godden

Lili Taylor

Mariella Frostrup

Katie Kitamura

Saffron Hocking

Tahmima Anam

Shirin Neshat

Martha Wainwright

Christiane Amanpour