This is an unusual historical novel in that it’s a fictional story about a relatively unknown – but nonetheless impressive – historical figure. Written by the subject’s great-niece, this memoir-style tale tells the story of a young woman who, enraged at the poverty she saw around her and with no way to change it, committed her life to the suffragette cause.

Being based on a real person’s life, there’s no structured plot. That’s by no means a bad thing; in the words of Josh Groban on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “life doesn’t make narrative sense”. It was refreshing to read a story that delved into all the facets of someone’s life, without feeling the need for everything to have a purpose. That being said, sometimes the pacing was a little off in order to give everything equal weighting. The bulk of her campaigning for women’s suffrage, including working full-time for the W.S.P.U. and spending time in Holloway Prison, was squeezed into the final portion of the book, and it would have been nice to spend a little more time on that. I did appreciate though that the author spent a lot of time on Gladys as a young women, and how her experiences lay the groundwork for the campaigner she would become.

On the whole, the writing was good; it had that gentle, nostalgic quality of C. S. Lewis or Enid Blyton and was easy to sink into. That being said, I did not like the way regional accents were written, specifically the Birmingham accent. I’m all for writing non-standard dialects and vernacular where suitable, and writing accents can work if done well and with restraint. In this case though it was complete overkill, one of the worst offender being a character saying “daicent” instead of “decent”. (But not a single “mom” in sight!) Perhaps the Black Country part of me is being sensitive, but it did feel unnecessary.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, reminding us that history is much more than the few famous names we are taught in school.

I received a free copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

I liked the unique idea of a novelized biography of someone related to the author. This was a mixed bag for me; creative idea, insight into another human's experience....but I felt somewhat thrown into the beginning with little setting-building. Recommend, though, for biography lovers!

Not for me. I struggled to get into it unfortunately and found that I never got round to finishing it

This is a book I have been waiting for for a long time, the Suffragettes was such an important movement and yet not much literature/fiction around it exists and so this book is special. it was so readable and i became really invested in the characters and their plights. The settings were really good and the vivid descriptions and imagery of the living conditions and the poverty felt in these settings was noth heartbreaking and humbling. A really great book that I didnt want to end.