The Walnut Tree
Women, Violence and the Law – A Hidden History
by Kate Morgan
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Pub Date 29 Feb 2024 | Archive Date 1 Mar 2024
HarperCollins UK, Nonfiction | Mudlark
Description
'Compulsively readable' – Times Literary Supplement
'An outstanding work' – Philippa Gregory
'A powerful narrative told with frankness and sensitivity' Helen Fry, historian and author of Women In Intelligence
'A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they’ll be.'So went the proverb quoted by a prominent MP in the Houses of Parliament in 1853. His words – intended ironically in a debate about a rise in attacks on women – summed up the prevailing attitude of the day, in which violence against women was waved away as a part and parcel of modern living – a chilling seam of misogyny that had polluted both parliament and the law. But were things about to change?
In this vivid and essential work of historical non-fiction, Kate Morgan explores the legal campaigns, test cases and individual injustices of the Victorian and Edwardian eras which fundamentally re-shaped the status of women under British law. These are seen through the untold stories of women whose cases became cornerstones of our modern legal system and shine a light on the historical inequalities of the law.
We hear of the uniquely abusive marriage which culminated in the dramatic story of the ‘Clitheroe wife abduction’; of the domestic tragedies which changed the law on domestic violence; the controversies surrounding the Contagious Diseases Act and the women who campaigned to abolish it; and the real courtroom stories behind notorious murder cases such as the ‘Camden Town Murder’.
Exploring the 19th- and early 20th Century legal history that influenced the modern-day stances on issues such as domestic abuse, sexual violence and divorce, The Walnut Treelifts the lid on the shocking history of women under British law – and what it means for women today.
Available Editions
EDITION | Ebook |
ISBN | 9780008559595 |
PRICE | £12.99 (GBP) |
PAGES | 320 |