THE COURAGE GAME by Jeni Whitaker
Published by Troubador
This is the best novel I’ve read about the Suffragettes who fought for votes for women before the First World War. It’s a compelling page turner which really nails their uncertainties, split loyalties, determination, sacrifices and suffering.
It’s a first-person narrative in which we learn about Gladys’s childhood in Ireland as one of seven, the move to England, teacher training and, eventually being drawn into “the cause” partly because of her social conscience, but also because of her strong sense of injustice. Her activities inevitably alienate her parents as would her love affair with Michael if they’d known about it.
It’s carefully researched. The accounts of forcible feeding and its long-term after-effects are graphic and shocking but every character and situation is presented in a balanced way. Some of the doctors with feeding tubes are distressed and traumatised by what they’re doing. Gladys has reservations about some suffragette activities. Her mother supports the cause but not the violence. Michael is attractive, loving and loveable but ultimately deceitful. Nothing in this long, readable novel is black and white.
Many of the characters, like Gladys herself, are real: Doctor Gertrude Austin, a wise woman and a mainstay to Gladys, for instance. The characterisation of complicated Emily Wilding Davison, who was probably mentally ill, is skilful and plausible. And, of course, the Pankhursts are floating about – sometimes a bit self interested and lordly and not always behaving well.