The Trial of Lotta Rae: The unputdownable historical novel of 2022

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This novel is an intense, at times heart-breaking read which is enlivened by great descriptions of the experiences of those risings against injustice and inequality.

The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan Review : The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan

But the verdict is devastating, the consequences unimaginable. When Lotta discovers she has been betrayed, she vows to deliver her own justice. Mark Hodkinson affectionately documents Rochdale’s dire 1973/74 season – winning twice in 46 league games – with a team considered the worst to play in the Football League. But this book is as much a love letter to his hometown as to his hometown team. The subject seems niche but the writer stretches the story smartly. We are on the familiar terrain of strikes over pay and crippling inflation, troubled race-relations, irresponsible industrialists, and despicable politicians, like Rochadale’s Liberal MP, paedophile Cyril Smith. Hodkinson adds plenty of cultural colour too, and evokes what a game on a Saturday can mean to a town trudging through life’s grey travails. Through a story of inglorious losers on the pitch, he shows that ordinary, decent people will not be defeated off it. NJ McGARRIGLEHalloween night, 1906. Lotta Rae is assaulted by a wealthy gentleman and bravely takes him to trial alongside her barrister, William, who she believes her ally. I would also often pass the Old Bailey, enthralled as a child by its grandeur. The court we know today was opened to much fanfare in 1907 and it is in that year the book’s trial is set. During my research I was fascinated to learn that the building’s smooth Portland stone masks what lies beneath: the more sullied stone of the notorious Newgate jail, demolished to make way for the court, but much of its stone serving as the court’s skeleton. This book begs to be awarded 5 stars simply because one cannot ignore the exceptional writing throughout what is a harrowing but compelling story set in the lates1800s/early 1900s, encompassing WWI, and a society seemingly very different to today's, but in actual fact scarily relevant. He is a hypocrite. He aspires to morality and duty, but he sells his principles to advance his legal career and his social status.

The Trial of Lotta Rae - Siobhan MacGowan - Google Books

Halloween night, 1906. Lotta Rae is assaulted by a wealthy gentleman and bravely takes him to trial alongside her barrister, William. The plot is nice but I found it quite weakly supported by historical facts except for the Suffregette movement with some historical figures that appear in the storyline. For the rest, it is pure fiction. I was curious in the end to see if the author would have explained it was loosely inspired by real facts but apparently is not. From my knowledge of the the history of crimes related to gender based violence and related trial, it sounds improbable that a woman from the working class in those years would have ever press charges against a rich man for rape. It would be nice to imagine it could have happened but, as a lawyer who has read and studied the first of such trials, the way dialogues are developed and Lotta's standing in the trial is how a much more modern woman would have approaches it. It sounds really unrealistic. This was quite disappointing for me. Twelve years later as the suffragettes rise and the ghost of WW1 looms large over London, William and Lotta meet again. Now, they will travel to a fateful destination where truths must be faced and wrongs must be righted. But in times to come it will be this part that I remember the most vividly. Shortly after another tragedy which I can’t mention because of spoilers, Lotta visits a spiritualist in Camden.But don’t be put off. Siobhan MacGowan is a poet as well as a novelist, her use of language so lyrical and beautiful that I almost couldn’t bear it at times. And the historical details about World War One and the suffragette movement added to my appreciation of this wonderful, heartfelt read. A true masterpiece. Lotta Rae faces many trials throughout the novel and her sentence is genuinely one without end. Harsh, brutal and extremely sad you find yourself wishing for a world of peace and fairness. Through Lotta’s eyes we experience the hideous cruelty of force‑feeding of women on hunger strike. And we get a sense of the suffragettes’ comradeship and heroism. I can see much suffering in your life. You have lost someone dear, perhaps more than one,’ she says. ‘And I see trouble there…perhaps one who….has wronged you greatly.’ Lotta and her circle express the optimism of the late Edwardian period, a sense that the new century would bring social change, equality and freedom. We know the devastating tragedy which was to unfold in the First World War and this makes the earlier optimism more poignant.