What You Call Free

BY FLORA JOHNSTON

RINGWOOD £9.99

★★★

A piece of historical fiction loosely based on the lives of two women, Helen Alexander and Jonet Gothskirk (who was forced to wear a ‘sackcloth’ or ‘gown of repentance’ as punishment for adultery during the period of the Covenanters). After falling pregnant, 18-year-old Jonet seeks refuge among a group of religious dissidents with the help of widow Helen. Johnston’s exploration of religious tensions, female oppression, and what it truly means to be ‘free’ within the context of a turbulent 17th-century Scotland, is enlightening.