They say two heads are better than one - but who are the great dynamic duos of history? In It Takes Two, Cathy Newman rewrites the history books to give a vibrant, feminist account of the extraordinary moments when two people have paired up to innovate, explore, create and change the world. From married couples to sisters, rivals to unlikely friends, Newman tells stories reaching back to medieval history and out to all corners of the world.

How did the queer women Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece Edith Emma Cooper dream up and share the literary pseudonym 'Michael Field' so that their writing could be published? How did Amelia Earhart and George 'Mr Earhart' Putnam forge a true marriage of equals and adventure? How did a pair of amateur astronomers in nineteenth century Tulse Hill, London, come together to prove the universe was expanding?

Introducing the unacknowledged movers-and-shakers of the past alongside the real stories behind household names, Newman gives a triumphant and unexpected history