The Trial of Lotta Rae: The unputdownable historical novel of 2022

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Perhaps you are finding it hard to forgive….perhaps it is in forgiveness that your suffering will ease.’

The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan | Waterstones

It really brings home the reality of life for a working class woman in the beginning of the twentieth century and the power of a wealthy, influential gentleman. The repercussions of this terrible rape are devastating to not only Lotta but subsequently her family and friends , betrayal, imprisonment, hunger strikes, death and more are some of the consequences.

The plot is nice but I found it quite weakly supported by historical facts except for the Suffregette movement with some historical figures that appear in the storyline. For the rest, it is pure fiction. I was curious in the end to see if the author would have explained it was loosely inspired by real facts but apparently is not. From my knowledge of the the history of crimes related to gender based violence and related trial, it sounds improbable that a woman from the working class in those years would have ever press charges against a rich man for rape. It would be nice to imagine it could have happened but, as a lawyer who has read and studied the first of such trials, the way dialogues are developed and Lotta's standing in the trial is how a much more modern woman would have approaches it. It sounds really unrealistic. This was quite disappointing for me.

The Trial of Lotta Rae | Fox Lane Books The Trial of Lotta Rae | Fox Lane Books

This book was recommended to me by a friend from my online Book Group. When she told me it was one of the best books she had read last year (in advance of its January 2023 publication), I knew it would be good. However, I didn’t realise it would be so good! The main character, Lotta, is the most wonderful creation and I desperately wanted to change the direction she was moving in but powerless to help I read on knowing what was to come. I could not put this book down so engrossed was I in Lotta and her story. On my mental well-being journey I've qualified in different 'therapies' including Mindfulness and as a Mental Health First Aider. I took my love of crochet one step further too with a crochet diploma. Read more The Trial of Lotta Rae captured my imagination as right from the start I was on Lotta's side and yet as we discover justice isn't always on the side of the righteous. Bringing the mean moody streets of the East End of London to life we get to experience Lotta's downfall, her naive trust in authority and her search for justice and retribution. Halloween night, 1906. Lotta Rae is assaulted by a wealthy gentleman and bravely takes him to trial alongside her barrister, William, who she believes her ally.

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After losing the case, Lotta is forced from her usual employment to a Soho brothel. Her father’s reaction to the case finds him on the wrong side of the law, no longer of any help to his family. Lotta’s experiences make her hardened to the world around her and into the arms of the Suffragette movement. The book details the struggles faced by the movement on their way to make a fairer, more equitable world. When the verdict isn’t in her favour, the repercussions are devastating and far reaching for Lotta and her family. Some years later, Lotta meets William’s son Raff and she thinks to punish her barrister for everything she has lost despite his promises and becomes friendly with Raff thinking she can get some sort of revenge on William.