I had never heard of Annie Besant until I read this fabulous book. A real life tale of the supposed crime of distributing a pamphlet dealing with birth control. Women and children were dying at an alarming rate. Women wore out by constant pregnancy and child birth and children dying due to malnutrition. All because of ignorance and their lack of legal status which want that they were the legal “property” of their husbands. The ruling classes were horrified that their wives and mistresses would get hold of their publication and that it would led to promiscuity etc. The poor would similarly be corrupted and the natural order would be overturned. This is a history book that reads as a novel. The book draws on extensive research by the authors. It doesn’t use deal with the trial but gives the reader the insight into Annie’s life from childhood, through a disasterous marriage to the Reverend Besant, their separation and Annie's formation as an activist. The book is extremely well reaearched and written in an engaging style. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC but most of all to the authors. This is a book that needs to find its way into the hands of readers who have an interest in the history of the rights of women.

A 5 Star book that reveals a 5 Star lady, Annie Besant, who has been largely overlooked for more than a Century. Her contributions to the current quality of life of women has regrettably been kept from the public gaze.

When Annie Besant was at her most active, a Dirty, Filthy Book was most certainly needed. Victorian women, even more than today, needed to know "how babies are made" and "how to prevent them being made" and society conspired to keep them all in the dark. A Dirty, Filthy Book was a concerted effort to produce an easily accessible and inexpensive booklet of information on birth control that everyone could read and learn from. Male dominated society did its best to prevent this by labelling such things as obscene and such data best confined to medical texts; in truth those were not much better informed.

I am totally unable to do this book justice with my review and so I shall be recommending and am recommending this book to everyone. It truly is jaw-dropping, in a good way, because it so clearly sets out the many ways that Annie Besant changed and effected change in her lifetime and into ours.

Michael Meyer’s A Dirty, Filthy Book is an excellent exposition of the life of Annie Besant (1847-1933). Annie was married to an abusive older husband, Frank Besant, the vicar of Sibsey. Although Annie had been religious when young, she lost her faith. Her husband gave her an ultimatum: to either attend communion in his church (because he thought that, otherwise, his living might be at risk and he’d lose his job) or to leave. To his astonishment, she chose the latter. The court awarded custody of their son to Frank and custody of Mabel, their daughter, to Annie.

Annie worked closely with Charles Bradlaugh and they were both excellent speakers. The young George Bernard Shaw knew Annie and praised her oratory to the end of his life. They published pamphlets and a weekly newspaper, the National Reformer, all in favour of free-thinking. That is, they encouraged the working classes to understand issues, to consider possible solutions and to argue and debate. This was seen as quasi-revolution by the upper-classes, who were aghast at challenges to the status quo. Besant and Bradlaugh published a book, The Fruits of Philosophy, which explained how pregnancy happens and thus explains options for controlling the size of families. That is, women could take steps to avoid constant pregnancies and thus alleviate the poverty caused when raising many children. The couple were prosecuted for selling an obscene book and Annie used the trial as a platform for making her views known and seeking publicity for the book. Besant and Bradlaugh were found guilty (sort of) by a rigged jury and Frank obtained a court order to take Mabel away from Annie.

Annie Besant found socialist ideas appealing but Bradlaugh abhorred Marxism as a foreign perversion and the two drifted apart. Annie helped the female match-workers of London’s East End to form a union – the first one whose members were all female. She strongly supported their strike and the employers capitulated.

The book is never dry. I was aware of Annie’s work with unions, but had little idea of her espousal of means to check pregnancy. The size of Victorian families diminished noticeably after the book was published – although it is impossible to prove this was due to the widespread dissemination of its ideas, it is probable that the book was the cause. Many women had cause to be grateful to Annie Besant for telling them what their mothers had been silent about – and many poor people were better-off after Annie’s fights for workers’ rights. This is a well-written book about a Very Important Woman – and I encourage everyone to read it.

#DirtyFilthyBook #NetGalley

An interesting book on a subject that is just as relevant today as it was in Annie Besant's day. No less covered then as it would be today and no less opposed in either time.

While the subject is well covered this is a very academic book, heavy on sources, quotes and side points. I would have liked more of the co defendants and less of the Queen, the jury, the judge, etc. It has interesting side notes and sets the tone of the day, but I did feel some of the tangents took away from the story and the main characters.

And then after the trial I'd have rather the focus follow Annie and her life. I felt like she became a side character in a book filled with men.

Whatever else I feel about this book this is a story that deserves to be told and everyone should read. Annie Besant's story and life mission deserves to be known.

Grab this book for a bedside table read and devour a chapter a night.

This book about the pioneering woman Annie Besant should have been riveting. Unfortunately I didn’t find it so, it was often not enough about Annie, but her partner, and others, such as Dickens. Why? It digressed too much.
The chapters which were about Annie, and the prologue/ introduction contained such large information dump passages, that it became stodgy and indigestible for me.
It was undoubtedly forensically researched, but that does not make it easily readable.
A 2.5 rounded up for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

This is a non-fiction book that reads like fiction. This account of the trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, two remarkable Victorians who were way ahead of their time, for the publication of a pamphlet on contraception. Without any legal training, Annie Besant represented herself in the trial, and the transcripts showed her to be an intelligent and eloquent orator. As well as covering the background of Besant and Bradlaugh, the book explores Victorian attitudes towards sex, marriage and the role of women and the story’s timeline also features excerpts from Queen Victoria’s diaries and correspondence to good effect. Annie Besant seems to have gone on to have an interesting life beyond this, with more than enough material for several more books about her life. This was a gripping legal drama, which left me feeling both educated and entertained.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

I had heard of Annie Besant through her connections to Madame Blavatsky and Theosophy but I was not aware of the incredible life she had led and the risks she had taken. A truly amazing woman who should be lauded with the Pankhurts and Fawcetts. She stood trial with Charles Bradlaugh on the crime of publishing a book on female contraception. This was 1877 and she defended herself.

Annie’s life choices seem astonishing when set against the time that she lived. She left her husband and children, she travelled the world - especially India - and she stood beside the exploited workers in Bryant and May.

The young, mostly female workers were fined 3 pence for having dirty feet and for talking. If they put a burnt match on a bench it cost them a shilling penalty - equal to 18 hours of labour. One girl was fined a shilling for jamming a cutting machine to save her hand. One of the foremen (who also included Karl Marx’s illegitimate son - there’s irony) got angry with her screaming "Never mind your fingers".

Rejected for an education in Britain, Annie started a university in India with a residential girls’ school which subsequently became Banaras Hindu University. The university granted her an honorary doctorate and she was known forever as Dr Besant. When she died in 1933 Mahatma Ghandi was among those sending condolences.

A fascinating look at a fascinating life and should be widely read.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the sordid crime of publishing and selling a birth control pamphlet. Remarkably – forty-five years before the first woman will be admitted to the English bar – Annie is defending herself. Before Britain’s highest judge she declares it is a woman’s right to choose when, and if, to have children. At a time when women were legally and socially subservient to men, Annie’s defiant voice was a sensation. The riveting trial scandalised newspapers, captivated the British public and sparked a debate over morals, censorship and sex.

This is a very readable book. Well written and researched. There is also an underlying humour that works well and makes a dry subject interesting. Like most, I suppose, I had never heard of Annie Besant before and always linked Marie Stopes with birth control and its education so this was a very informative read.

A keen examination of a trial which, though virtually unknown today, had an impact on family planning and birth control that resonates into our own time.

this is a fascinating book about a woman who changed Victorian society for the good. Annie Besant with Charles Bradlaugh recognised the need for simple family planning information and challenged the power of the church and the medical profession to circulate the essential facts in a cheaply sold book. This factual story is well told with a good pace and an appropriate level of detail. Annie defending herself in court is well described and engaging, her persecution and suffering for not staying silent is clearly drawn. I thoroughly recommend this book.

An intriguing and appealing biography of an unassuming feminist trailblazer in Victorian London. The historical detail was conscientiously researched with great attention to detail. Well written and a great education piece. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Annie Besant and her close friend Charles Bradlaugh are put on trial in 1877 for publishing 'a dirty, filthy book': a pamphlet written by Charlesk Knowlton concerning birth control and contraceptives. Fighting for a free press and more significantly, women's right to choose and control when they had children, Besant made history for defending herself forty-five years before Ivy Williams became the first woman called to the bar.

This was highly readable and Meyer's voice and humour shine through clearly. I had never heard of Annie Besant before and was intrigued to learn of her social activism. At a time when the age of consent was thirteen, Besant's advocacy for law reform on marital rape, informed sexual education and contraceptives were considered obscene and immoral. Having been barred from publishing Knowlton's 'Fruits of Philosophy', Besant took it upon herself to write and publish her own book on birth control. She advocated for the eight-hour workday and state0funded streetlighting, and was the public face for the Match Girls' Strike, one of the earliest industrial actions in British history and the largest undertaken by women.

Meyer's rendering of the court case, Besant's life up to, during, and after, were highly engaging and he balanced the inclusion of her personal life extremely well against her more public actions and status. I am very glad to have read this and would definitely be interested in reading more from Meyer in the future.

This is a biography of an extraordinary woman. I tend to read fiction, but there were parts of this well-written biographical account that read like a novel. The authors research and integration of primary sources 9like journals and court transcripts) added to the intrigue and interest. I love a book that is set in London (the best city in the world) and the descriptions of Victorian life were fascinating. (Although I am incredibly glad I was not a woman at the time!)
it was a long read, but accessible and incredibly interesting. It was certainly worthwhile. I am not going to forget what Annie Besant did. She was clearly an extraordinary woman and I would like to thank her, as the early feminism and socialist values she fought for have clearly made a difference to this day. I would love to see a film of TV series about her life. I can particularly envisage the court room scenes. (Besant was prosecuted for obscenity due to the publication of a pamphlet about contraception.)

I so wanted to love this book and then were aspects that I really did. Annie is a fantastic woman, and her story should be known. What she did for feminism was absolutely amazing. However, there was far too much extraneous information contained within this book that was just not necessary. I didn't want to hear so much about Charles Bradlaugh, I didn't want to hear so much about Dickens, and I didn't want to hear so much about Queen Victoria's Diaries. I wanted the details around Annie! She was the most fascinating subject, and I felt that she was pushed to the side in her own biography.

For this reason, I give 2.5 stars - it reads more like an academic essay, expetly reserched and written for this audience, sure, but therefore inaccessible to some, and I feel this story should be heard by all.

Thank you very much to NetGalley for this eARC in extrange for an honest review.

This is a well researched biography of Annie Besant. She is a very interesting character and the book goes into a lot of detail about her life, interests, campaigns etc. There is a lot of extraneous detail, some of which I felt was unnecessary - did we really need so many mentions of Dickens's novels? And what was going on in the wider world? Also I was not expecting an unproofed copy. I highlighted over 80 incidences in the actual that should have been picked up during proofreading and copyediting. I did not read the acknowledgments or footnotes. I do hope that these errors are corrected before the final edition goes to print or ebook publication.

A very interesting biography of an incredible woman who was many decades ahead of her time. I had not heard of Annie Besant but she should be a name on everyone’s lips, a Victorian campaigning for birth control and womens rights. An impassioned account.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, the publisher and Net Galley.

I learned so much reading this book, it was a real pleasure. I was aware of some events and people referenced in this book such as the match girls strike. However much of this I hadn’t heard of and that surprises me now seeing how prolific Annie Besant’s influence was.

This book tells Annie Besant’s story alongside that of Charles Bradlaugh and a significant trial they went through after publishing a guide to birth control during Queen Victoria’s reign. Something that caused great scandal but was in demand from many people who couldn’t support more children.

Annie was an inspiring social reformer and did so much through her newspaper work and campaigning to help others who were caused much suffering through the injustices of Victorian Society and the expansion of the empire.

This was fascinating. It did dip a bit in the middle but the beginning and end were brilliant. Annie sacrificed so much in the service of social justice and others. She was an absolute warrior in defence of her fellow humans. This is non-fiction but it’s still a thrilling read full of intrigue, shocks and scandals.

Glad to have read this, thoroughly educational and enjoyable.

A wonderful book. I knew about Annie Bessant and her work with the matchstick girls and that was about it. How glad am I to have found out more, a lot more and to find out that the matchstick girls were a fairly small part of her life.
I am amazed at the detail included in this book. The bibliography is testament to the amount of research done and that is impressive. The title of the book does not give justice to the work and I don't think reflects the content. I have learnt so much and enjoyed the journey, possibly I'm a bit shocked to learn about what it was like in these Victorian times. I would encourage anyone to read it, who enjoys history and you may be surprised at the bigger picture.

A Dirty, Filthy Book is an engaging biography of Victorian reformer Annie Besant. It seems incredible that I hadn't heard of her before, when she played a pioneering role in advocating for women's rights.

Meyer clearly cares about his subject, and his depiction of Besant's life is meticulously researched and wonderfully contextualised in Victorian London. His coverage of the trial is particularly compelling, capturing Annie's courage and charisma through her own words.

The structure is perhaps a little uneven - while much time is spent on the trial and Besant's relationship with Bradlaugh, I would've loved a little more depth on her work in the East End and on the Bryant & May matchgirls' strike to balance it out.

Besant was clearly a fascinating and complex personality, and A Dirty, Filthy Book reasserts her rightful place in popular history.

No doubt a worthy subject, I'm afraid I gave up with this half way through. It's a shame as I expect Mrs Besant was a far more interesting character than the rather stodgy writing portrayed. Rather dull to be honest