On Tuesday 12th March we will be discussing Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
We will meet at 8.15pm in Gatehangers and Ruth has kindly volunteered to 'host'.
Last night 9 of us met and discussed Fame is The Spur by Howard Spring which turned out to be an extensive and in-depth discussion around what was considered to be an incredibly rich account of social and political activity at a time of significant change in Britain. I want to capture as much of the commentary as possible so will post the summary as soon as I have had time to do it justice.
In the meantime here is a snippet from last night. Helen brought along some googled images of posters related to the Suffragette movement (one of the subjects covered in the book) - here are a couple of examples.
 |
| The Women's Social and Political Union, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel in 1903, used militant tactics. Many suffragettes went to prison as a result of their actions and, while in prison, they often went on hunger strike to gain publicity for the cause and as a result were forcibly fed. In 1913 the Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act was passed in Parliament, often referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act. According to this, any hunger-striking woman prisoner was released when they became seriously ill, and re-arrested when recovered. |
 |
| With the coming of the First World War the women's suffrage campaign was called off. Afterwards, in 1918, women were given limited voting rights with the Representation of the People Act. Universal suffrage, that is, the vote for men and women on equal terms, was finally achieved with the Equal Franchise Act in 1928 when all men and women were given the vote at 21 years. In 1969 the voting age for men and women was lowered to 18. |
Reading books can be a thought provoking experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment