May Meeting: an evening with Caitlin Davies

Writer’s at Blackwell’s have been invited to join an evening with Caitlin Davies, at Blackwell’s on Wednesday May 30th 7:00 – 8:00pm.

After the talk group members will move upstairs for wine and a discussion led by Adam who works at Blackwell’s and is also an author.

The event is free to group members, but please can you just email Hannah at Hannah.Chinnery@blackwell.co.uk to let her know that you are going so your names can be added to the list on the door.

As part of our Every Woman Series, Blackwell’s presents an evening with Caitlin Davies where she will be discussing her fascinating new book ‘Bad Girls’, which explores the history of a century of women, punishment and crime in HM Prison Holloway.

Those who defied expectations about feminine behaviour have long been considered dangerous and unnatural, and ever since the Victorian era they have been removed from public view, locked up and often forgotten about. Many of these women ended up at HM Prison Holloway, the self-proclaimed ‘terror to evil-doers’ which, until its closure in 2016, was western Europe’s largest women’s prison.

First built in 1852 as a House of Correction, Holloway’s women have come from all corners of the UK – whether a patriot from Scotland, a suffragette from Huddersfield, or a spy from the Isle of Wight – and from all walks of life – socialites and prostitutes, sporting stars and nightclub queens, refugees and freedom fighters. They were imprisoned for treason and murder, for begging, performing abortions and stealing clothing coupons, for masquerading as men, running brothels and attempting suicide. In ‘Bad Girls’, Caitlin Davies tells their stories and shows how women have been treated in our justice system over more than a century, what crimes – real or imagined – they committed, who found them guilty and why. It is a story of victimization and resistance; of oppression and bravery.

Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, journalist and teacher, and many of her books are inspired by forgotten women from history. She is the author of six novels and six non-fiction books.

Caitlin will also answer an question you have on her writing process, how she got published, difference between writing styles – or anything else you want to know.

The Blackwell’s Every Woman Series

From February 2018, Blackwell’s Broad Street will launch a year-long series of events in conjunction with the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the UK.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote – not all women, therefore, could vote. It was a step, but it was not the whole journey. And many would argue that we are still a long way from stepping the journey’s full distance towards gender equality in this country and worldwide. Blackwell’s Centenary events programme will focus around the following questions:

1) How much does the vote mean today?

2) How far are we still from achieving gender equality?

3) How can we recognise intersectional privilege and oppression, and platform those demographics of people who weren’t acknowledged by this achievement 100 years ago, and are still under-represented and undervalued today?

Extra feedback session:

As promised I am also planning an extra feedback session but it looks like it will have to be the first week in June so can members email me at info@theoxfordeditors.co.uk to let me know if you can make it on June 2nd. If this date works I will book a room and get back to members.