Flegel argues that this development had material effects on the lives of children, as well as profound implications for the role of class in representations of suffering and abused children. With the emergence of the NSPCC and the new crime of cruelty to children, new professions and genres, such as child protection and social casework, supplanted literary works as the authoritative voices in the definition of social ills and their cure. Taking up crucial topics such as the linking of children with animals, the figure of the child performer, the relationship between commerce and child endangerment, and the problem of juvenile delinquency, Flegel examines the emergence of child abuse as a subject of legal and social concern in England, and its connection to earlier, primarily literary representations of endangered children. Flegel considers a wide range of well-known and more obscure texts from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth, including philosophical writings by Locke and Rousseau, poetry by Coleridge, Blake, and Caroline Norton, works by journalists and reformers like Henry Mayhew and Mary Carpenter, and novels by Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Morrison.
And Simon is not going to be pleased.ĭescription : Moving nimbly between literary and historical texts, Monica Flegel provides a much-needed interpretive framework for understanding the specific formulation of child cruelty popularized by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the late nineteenth century. But to be with Kate, Rachel first has to ditch Simon. But then she meets feisty and sexy Kate, who not only seduces Rachel at work but finally convinces her that being with another woman is just what she really craves. Instead of heeding warnings from her flat mate, she ignores Simon's behavior, determined that this time she will not be left with another failed relationship to her name. When she receives a flattering offer from an attractive man in a cafe, it sounds like the perfect antidote to her problems, and who knows, maybe going straight might not be so bad after all? Except Simons' idea of how a girlfriend should behave isn't quite what Rachel is expecting and she finds herself embedded in an escalating struggle of control, humiliation and terror.
The characters are convincing, too.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Wilson is as adroit at the straightforward mechanics of the crime mystery as she is at evocative prose shot through with a keen sense of the past.” -Independentĭescription : Twenty two year old Rachel Collins has given up on women following a series of disastrous relationships, never mind that fact that she is gay. Wilson convincingly evokes what it was like to sleep in a bomb shelter or stumble through shattered London streets in the dark. A terrific police procedural, a mesmerizing historical novel-few writers working today can deliver this kind one-two punch.” -Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author “Outstanding. Praise for the Inspector Stratton series “Laura Wilson is an exceptional talent. As well as a twisty murder mystery, A Willing Victim is a portrait of England in the mid-fifties and a meditation on the dangerous power of faith. Traveling to Suffolk to investigate, Inspector Stratton encounters a community of fervent believers led by an enigmatic, charismatic leader, and a femme fatale with a shady past. The murder victim is a young man in London whose bookshelves are filled with literature on spirituality and esoteric religions, and who had just recently left the Foundation for Spiritual Understanding, a New Age cult based in Suffolk. The world is in turmoil-the Bikini Atoll, the Suez Crisis, the Hungarian Uprising-these are just some of the events Inspector Ted Stratton can’t help but think about as he makes his way through a murder investigation. It’s 1956 as the 4th Inspector Stratton mystery opens. a disquisition on the seductive attractions of unquestioning faith” from the author of The Wrong Man (Independent). Description : “A slow-burning but accomplished murder mystery.