Book Review

William’s Wife, Gertrude Trevelyan, Boiler House Press, 2023 (first published 1938)

William’s Wife is an unpleasant novel about unpleasant people. It draws you in to an ugly world of dark and neglected rooms; hideous, bulky old furniture; and musty, outworn clothes, …

A Memory of Murder by Helen Hollick (Taw River Press, 2024)

A Memory of Murder is the fifth novella in the Jan Christopher Mysteries series. Set in the 1970s in Chingford, north east London, this cosy series follows the adventures of …

Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing, Kathryn Atherton (Pen & Sword, 2024)

On the face of it, any connection between the suffragette movement and the folk dance revival seems a tenuous one. If all there is to connect them is that some …

Lyndsey Jenkins, Sisters and Sisterhood: The Kenney Family, Class and Suffrage, 1890-1965 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)

This is a fascinating account of the lives of the Kenney sisters and their involvement in the militant suffrage movement. Annie and Jessie Kenney are probably the best known sisters, …

Exsilium, Alison Morton (Pulcheria Press, 2024)

I’m pleased to join Alison Morton’s Exsilium Blog Tour today with my review of the latest thrilling addition to her Roma Nova series… In Exsilium, Alison Morton continues the origin …

Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and at War, Wendy Moore, Atlantic Books, 2024

Jack and Eve is an enthralling biography of Vera (Jack) Holme and Evelina Haverfield, the actress and the Hon who met and fell in love during the militant suffrage campaign. …

Faith, Hope and Carnage, Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan (Canongate, 2022)

I first heard of Nick Cave’s book when I read an interview he did with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in The Sunday Times (5 March 2023). I …

Celia Fremlin: The Queen of Domestic Horror

I’ve got a craze on Celia Fremlin’s novels. I can’t stop reading them, and as soon as I finish the latest batch of two or three I order another lot. …

Hidden Heroines: The Forgotten Suffragettes, Maggie Andrews and Janis Lomas (Robert Hale, 2018)

Hidden Heroines: The Forgotten Suffragettes is a collection of short biographies of forty-eight women who were involved in the struggle for the women’s franchise. The book was published in 2018, …

From Hogarth to Rowlandson: Medicine in Art in Eighteenth Century Britain, Fiona Haslam, (Liverpool University Press, 1996)

I’m often asked about how I go about doing the research for my historical novels. One of the sources I usually mention is visual art. I’ve always found that looking …

Jill by Amy Dillwyn, (Honno Welsh Women’s Classics, 2013, first published 1884)

Amy Dillwyn’s novel, Jill, introduces one of the most entertaining heroines I’ve come across in a long time. She’s selfish, ruthless, cynical, and often funny; a character who is a …

The House on Hunter Street, David Ebsworth (SilverWood Books, 2022)

I was particularly delighted to receive my copy of The House on Hunter Street from David Ebsworth because I’d seen an early draft of the novel and we’d discussed aspects …