The Walnut Tree
- Author Kate Morgan
- Narrator Kristin Atherton
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Run Time 7 hours and 56 minutes
- Format x-book®
- Genre Domestic abuse, Feminism and feminist theory, History, Law, Legal history, Sexual abuse and harassment, Social and cultural history, Society and Social Sciences.
Titles Purchased
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- 6-10
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- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- $13.95
- $12.95
- $11.95
- $10.95
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What to expect
'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.
Critics Review
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‘Throughout this fine and eminently, even compulsively readable book, Morgan explores the greatest of all legal fictions: that the law applies equally to all… The Walnut Tree is a fascinating historical excursion and a powerful demand for change, moving seamlessly from history to current events, and back, to show not only that the past is not a foreign country, but that most of the time it is not even past.’ – Judith Flanders, Times Literary Supplement
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