Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol
My current release is a non-fiction book for Pen and Sword Books called Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol. The bright ideas and determination of many mothers, educators, wives, artists, doctors, survivors and pioneers made Bristol great in times of war, civil unrest and hardship. This is their story. It’s a book for lovers of Bristol everywhere. You can get it here, as either an ebook or paperback.
Here’s the opening of Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol…
It’s freezing, pitch black, and silent- apart from the sound of rats under the bed your wheezing children share. Snow has blown in under the door overnight. Fetching all the water you need from the communal well will be a slippery job today. If your husband gives you some money, your family can eat. If not, hard luck. You’ll all have to go hungry. Welcome to the life of a Victorian woman living in one of Bristol’s riverside tenements. Women lurked in the footnotes of history until they gained an element of control, first over their own money, later their vote and finally, their lives. Much of that progress was driven by women themselves. It took a hundred years of hard work, lobbying and violence before their lives improved to anything like today’s standards. The only way was up-and Bristol women led the way.
The romance has gone out of Emily’s relationship with Jack.
When he books a holiday at a campsite in Wales during the wettest summer on record, it’s nearly the last straw in this short romantic comedy.
Emily thinks the bronzed farmer who was her teenage crush will be the best thing about this dreaded holiday. But time has moved on. She’s in for an almighty shock—and then her boyfriend Jack springs some even bigger surprises.
Can Emily’s holiday from hell ever have a happy ending?