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

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It is not a book to read if you are feeling at all dispirited or prone to melancholia, for it accurately portrays a society where the rich and powerful can evade punishment, treat others without any respect or compassion, denying women a voice and believing that sending men to certain death during wartime an honorable deed. 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. Lotta is a happy 19 year old living with her Ma and Pa in Peabody house, Spitalfields she works as a typist at Whitbreads Brewery. Her life was shattered when she attended a works Halloween party with her Pa. During the evening Lotta had a tiff with her colleague and boyfriend Albert and upset she decided to get some fresh air. As she walked outside an older gentleman, Henry Alan Griffiths, who had an interest in Whitbreads Brewery and had previously made lewd remarks to her in the office, followed her outside and walked up to her expressing concern that she was upset, he roughly took her arm and suddenly pushed her against a wall and raped her. 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.

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

We are always delighted to hear from authors. We are currently open for review requests and we are happy to review a wide variety of genres. Please submit your information below and we will be in touch asap. It is full of tragedy and injustice. Lotta Rae is an ordinary girl from an ordinary working family who is treated abominably by the justice system and loses so much of what she holds dear throughout her tormented life. Some colleagues found her crying and at her request took her home to her Ma. When her Pa returned home he was stunned to hear she had been raped by Griffith and went to the Police Station to report the rape. The Trial of Lotta Rae will make you furious. The way poor Lotta is treated by the judicial system is atrocious – the blame is for what happened is firmly at her door and the advantages of money and privilege work against her. Her happy life is ripped apart and she struggles to survive but makes good friends along the way. Lotta is a heroine you can’t hep but want to get behind.

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The Trial Of Lotta Rae is one of those books where everything just seems to work.The storyline, setting, and characters, all come together to create a twisted, fabulous, masterpiece.

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

This book was fascinating from start to finish. I loved the emotions it evoked in me, everything from heartbreak to anger. What surprised me the most about the book was that the trial itself wasn’t the book’s main focus but rather the aftermath. I really liked that about the story as it was a refreshingly new take on a woman scorned and out for revenge after being taken advantage of by men, especially a man who was supposed to be on her side to help her get justice. Charlotte Ray affectionately known as Lotta is raped by a despicable, wealthy male, Henry Allen Griffiths. Supported by her mam and pap, she makes the decision to press charges against him, believing that her lawyer William Lindon will fight the good fight and do her justice. A teenage girl, Lotta Rae, at the dawn of the 20th century makes plans for future which are shuttered one night and which open ways to several tragedies befalling herself and her family. A strong female protagonist and her male counterpart become rivals involved in a dangerous game which is called having knowledge and power. This is a good read and kept me interested, however, as the plot unravelled, I felt bigger distance towards Lotta. There was something missing in her to make me connect with her more.

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This book was fascinating from start to finish. I loved the emotions it evoked in me, everything from heartbreak to anger. What surprised me the most about the book was that the trial itself wasn't the book's main focus but rather the aftermath. I really liked that about the story as it was a refreshingly new take on a woman scorned and out for revenge after being taken advantage of by men, especially a man who was supposed to be on her side to help her get justice. Siobhan has connections with many of the locations which feature in The Trial of Lotta Rae including Spitalfields, Bishopsgate, Soho and Kings Cross. She lives in County Tipperary. The Trials Of Lotta Rae is very well researched and this made the novel feel very authentic. Although fiction, it was easy to believe that the events in the novel could easily be real and I think that is partly why I took Lotta to my heart so much. I will remember this novel for a long time to come. For some reason, I seem to resist a lot of historical fiction, even though when it is written as well as The Trial Of Lotta Rae, it can be completely consuming and compelling. I chose to read this book almost on a whim, and I am so glad I did, as it turned out to be one of my favourite books of the year so far. MacGowan handles such strong emotions which are all described so beautifully that I could imagine myself walking alongside these characters, despite their lifestyle and beliefs being very different to mine.

The Trial of Lotta Rae | Fox Lane Books The Trial of Lotta Rae | Fox Lane Books

The Trial of Lotta Rae captured my imagination as right from the start I was on Lotta's side and yet as we discover justice isn't always on the side of the righteous. Bringing the mean moody streets of the East End of London to life we get to experience Lotta's downfall, her naive trust in authority and her search for justice and retribution. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Betrayed by her counsel, with far-reaching ramifications for her family, her life takes a turn for the worse ultimately resulting in the loss of both her parents and colouring her outlook on life and God.What follows is nothing short of a travesty of justice, Griffiths is totally cleared of the rape and Lotta is branded a slut. Her devious lawyer Nicholas Linden deliberately mislead the jury so that Griffith was cleared of all charges.

The Trial of Lotta Rae - Siobhan MacGowan - Google Books

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. 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 McGARRIGLE It seems we imagine there will be a harbinger of those days that come to shatter our lives. Will herald their arrival not with duplicitous blue sky, but a clutch of foreboding clouds. That we will be granted a sign. But the day it happened dawned comforting in its simplicity: sunny, fresh and bright. " Siobhan MacGowan is a journalist and musician who lived and worked in London for much of her life before returning to Ireland several years ago. She is from a family of great storytellers, the most prominent of which is her brother, Shane MacGowan, of The Pogues. Perhaps you are finding it hard to forgive….perhaps it is in forgiveness that your suffering will ease.’

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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. The crime perpetrated against Lotta, a humble clerk in a brewery office, on the night of Halloween 1906, has repercussions, for her and her legal representative, that echo through the next twelve years until her death. Revealing that she is dead by the end of the book is not a spoiler because it soon becomes apparent that her presence beside William Linden on an important journey, during which her story is told, is as a ghost haunting and tormenting him. A clever device which enables the author to reveal both his and her versions of the story side by side, as the two voices alternate. The Trial of Lotta Rae (Charlotte Rae) is a harrowing insight of the tremendous differences that existed in the early 1900’s between the honest, poor, hardworking people and the elite in society not only in monetary terms but justice and respect. At this time Emmeline Pankhurst and her suffragettes were fighting for the emancipation of women, marching through London in the hope that Prime Minister H H Asquith would sign a Bill giving women the right to vote. But the verdict is devastating, the consequences unimaginable. When Lotta discovers she has been betrayed, she vows to deliver her own justice.