suffragettes

Book Review – The Hourglass Factory

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the-hourglass-factory-9781471139307_hrThe Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester
Published: January 15th 2015 by Simon & Schuster Ltd
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Feminism
Pages: 504
Source: Goodreads

four stars

The year is 1912 and London is in turmoil…

The suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch but for broke Fleet Street tomboy Frankie George, just getting by in the cut-throat world of newspapers is hard enough. Sent to interview trapeze artist Ebony Diamond, Frankie finds herself fascinated by the tightly laced acrobat and follows her across London to a Mayfair corset shop that hides more than one dark secret.

Then Ebony Diamond mysteriously disappears in the middle of a performance, and Frankie is drawn into a world of tricks, society columnists, corset fetishists, suffragettes and circus freaks. How did Ebony vanish, who was she afraid of, and what goes on behind the doors of the mysterious Hourglass Factory?

From the newsrooms of Fleet Street to the drawing rooms of high society, the missing Ebony Diamond leads Frankie to the trail of a murderous villain with a plot more deadly than anyone could have imagined..

The Hourglass Factory is set in my favourite historical era and I am just slightly obsessed with the Suffragettes. There is a lot of hype surrounding this period in history at the moment, which I imagine is all due to the release of the movie Suffragette, which will be in cinemas this coming October. This is the only reason that I picked up the book to begin with, along with the stunning front cover, which was hard to miss! I read it in two days, and it is definitely one of the better books I have read this year.

You spend the majority of the story travelling around 1912’s London with Frankie, the strong female protagonist, on foot, and this creates plenty of opportunities to visualise the society of the time and how it would have been. Ribchester is successful in creating very realistic imagery that truly leaps out the page, and the reader can almost witness every sight, smell and noise that is presented to Frankie in her travels and tribulations. The period clothing, Frankie’s trouser suit and cigarettes, along with Ebony’s corsets really add an intricate detail to the historical aspect of the story. It made me want to jump into the pages; I love this particular era so much!

I thought that a third person narrative throughout the novel was perfect, and switching from Frankie to DI Primrose kept me engaged and eager to turn the pages, offering me two points of view on the suffragettes and the crimes they were involved in. At times, I was so hooked that I couldn’t put it down, literally! I kept myself up until ridiculous o’clock in the morning to find out how it was all going to pan out.

Frankie is impulsive, impetuous and stubborn. When she’s knocked down she’s not deterred but keeps on fighting. She’s sharp, clever, observatory, smokes cigarettes and wears trousers. But she is also a substantially realistic character as she has unlikeable characteristics and you do not always agree with her decisions. I think Milly, the snake dancer at Jojo’s Bar who develops into a pretty central figure, was definitely my favourite character, and I would have loved to have found out even more about her. I would certainly read a sequel if it was based on her life!

It was the mysterious aspect of the plot that kept me turning the pages. Every step and character was filled with intrigue, from our first meeting with Milly, to Olivier Smythe, the Parisian Corsetiere, to Ebony’s disappearance and beyond. Whilst reading, you get the feeling that the only character you truly know is Frankie. The imagery during the pivotal scene was excellent. It was full of action and excitement, and was perfectly fast-paced. I appreciated the switch between DI Primrose and Frankie’s journeys, and it was interesting to see how the Police apparently reacted to the Suffragettes. I also loved the insight into prison life, with the force-feeding of the male suffragette. Ending the story on the Derby Day that Emily Davison was killed was a perfect way to finish, although it threw me a bit when it was suggested that the three of them hadn’t all kept in touch.

My only problem was that it was, more often than not, historically inaccurate. This was made up for by the interesting storyline, and Ribchester acknowledges her own inaccuracy at the start of the book. However, I definitely feel that it would have been better if she had undertaken more thorough research to make it historically factual. I also found the journalist Frankie slightly too irritating for a protagonist. As much as I loved the story, I didn’t particularly love her.

Overall, the story was richly imagined but wasn’t too heavy, and it remained light-hearted and easy to read although it often dealt with more serious issues. The Hourglass Factory was an exciting, fast-paced, and intriguing read that kept you guessing until the last page. Considering it was a debut novel, it was absolutely fantastic, and I eagerly look forward to what Lucy Ribchester will be writing next.

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Book Review – Suffragette: My Own Story

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Suffragette: My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst
Published: in 2015 by Hesperus Press Limited (First Published in 1914)
Genres: Autobiography, Feminism, Politics
Pages: 332
Source: Goodreads

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The closing paragraphs of this book were written in the late summer of 1914, when the armies of every great power in Europe were being mobilised for savage, unsparing, barbarous warfare-against one another, against small and unaggressive nations, against helpless women and children, against civilisation itself. How mild, by comparison with the despatches in the daily newspapers, will seem this chronicle of women’s militant struggle against political and social injustice in one small corner of Europe. Yet let it stand as it was written, with peace-so-called, and civilisation, and orderly government as the background for heroism such as the world has seldom witnessed. The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to the women.

I think the most powerful aspect of this story, which is part history, part politics and part autobiography is that it was written before the battle for women’s votes was won. The effect on the reader is that you come close to feeling like a real-time participant in the battle between the WSPU and the government. The detail is revealing and the facts are shocking. Before reading this book, I believed I was clued up on the Suffragette movement, but clearly I was not. I had no idea of the full goriness, pain, barbarism at the hands of men and utter unfairness that the women of the WSPU had to endure. They were incredibly brave and it humbles me. Pankhurst’s writing is fully immersive and you feel as though you are right in the middle of it, witnessing the events that she describes transpire.

Although it was written a hundred years ago, and we now have the vote that they were fighting for, the whole story still feels entirely relevant. We might have the vote, here in the UK, but there are still women who do not use it, and there are still millions of other battles that we need to fight to ensure an equal society. Every woman in the UK should read this, especially as we approach a general election, in which we will all get the right to vote on who runs our country. We’re a long way from equal representation, and I still speak to women who have never voted and do not intend to vote, which makes me angry. I do have a tendency to over-preach my views, but still. Women endured barbaric suffering and even died so that we could have the vote – and you’re not going to use it? Seriously?

I was brought up by a mother who taught me everything that she knew about the suffragette movement and was always made aware that I should value my right to vote, and that women had chained themselves to railings, and endured force-feeding, on my behalf for that right. What I did not realise was the full gory detail of that fight, and how utterly barbaric it was. Emmeline Pankhurst seems to try to justify her use of militancy in the autobiography – but I do not feel she needs to. I’m unsure whether I would have been strong enough to have fought alongside them and that thought alone is humbling. It got me to thinking what I would have done as a Suffragette – how far would I have gone? And what I could continue to do now to help modern day feminist issues.

Why this book isn’t on every school history class reading list I do not know. It really, really should be. Women’s history should be just as important a part of education as male history, but it still isn’t, even now. I know for a fact that without my mother teaching me who Mrs Pankhurst was, who Emily Davison was, and what they both did, along with others, there is no way that I would have known even their names if she had left it down to my teachers.

USE YOUR VOTE is a phrase that springs to mind, especially now, with the UK General Election approaching and the country in a state of prospective political change. It has never been more important to integrate feminism into your everyday life. Even if it’s just as small as calling up a co-worker on a sexist comment, or righting ignorance. Only the other day, I was at a dinner, and we were talking about the general election. A woman sat beside me said that she wouldn’t vote, and never had, as ‘she didn’t know who to vote for.’ I couldn’t help but say ‘You have to vote. Do some research, and vote for the party you like the most. Women died so that you could have the freedom to do that.’ Subsequently, a man in the same conversation proceeded to comment that ‘They did not! All they did was burn their bloody bras!’ I felt my face boil up in anger at the ignorance of his comment, and I wish, even now, that I had had the confidence to right him.

This book has definitely given me that confidence to speak up, and I think that every woman in the world should read it. It’s enlightening, enjoyable, shocking and inspirational. And there has never been a more perfect time to read it.