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On The House Helen Maskew

On The House By Helen Maskew

On The House by Helen Maskew


£5.30
New RRP £10.99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

A tale of murder, suicide and the treatment of inmates in a small Suffolk workhouse in 1838

On The House Summary

On The House by Helen Maskew

1838 and under the new Poor Law the destitute are now housed in union workhouses.

Two men unknown to each other seek to uncover the suspected mistreatment of inmates in a small Suffolk workhouse. Edgar Lawes is a local landowner and justice of the peace; Ambrose Hudson a London journalist.

Establishing himself on the board Lawes is immediately disturbed by the inhumanity he finds. Hudson becomes an inmate and covertly keeps a journal of conditions and events which follow chronologically those of Edgar Lawes.

The complacency of the owners is shattered by a suicide, closely followed by the brutal murder of a workhouse official. In the wake of these two deaths unlikely friendships are forged and lives are changed, but will it be for the better?

About Helen Maskew

When Helen retired, she decided to have a twenty-year exit strategy which would see her through to old age. She would complete all the tasks she'd never finished and try to achieve things which she had put on hold while raising a large family and working full time. One of these projects was to try her hand at a novel. In the past her writing experience had been academic, as a professional in the education world. She began writing On the House in December 2012.

This book came about following extensive research into her family history where she made a sad discovery. One of her ancestors volunteered for Wandsworth workhouse, where he hanged himself in 1863. What could have prompted such a desperate act? This led her to fascinating research about living conditions, regulation and control in nineteenth-century workhouses. In Victorian England, provision of welfare for the poor was a fractious political issue which divided opinion, as it still does today. But, while those issues are integral to the story, the events that unfold in this Suffolk workhouse in the early months of 1838 are considerably more graphic, as her synopsis describes. Helen enjoys all aspects of historical writing: developing the strands of ideas, researching and discovering the different perspectives of her characters. The Lawes and Hudson trilogy is now complete and she has grown to like her two protagonists. She hopes you will too.

Additional information

GOR009727265
9781911586098
1911586092
On The House by Helen Maskew
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Unbound
2017-08-01
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - On The House