THE WALNUT TREE

A Waterstones Best History Book 2024 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