APRIL 2019 - AudioFile
Set in 1928, this audiobook is the story of Mattie Simpkin, a former suffragette who founds a club, the Amazons, to educate girls on the importance of their hard-won right to vote. Jane Copland narrates, giving unique voice to a wide range of characters: Mattie; her housemate, “The Flea”; and Ida and Inez, two girls in the Amazons. Copland’s ability to employ accent, tempo, and emotion to give the many characters unique personalities is especially strong with unmotivated Inez and natural leader Ida. The story takes time to get going, but the patient listener will be rewarded with a realistic look at a particular slice of British and women’s history between the two World Wars. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/31/2019
Evans’s fourth novel (following Their Finest) is a thoughtful and satisfying story featuring 50-something Mattie Simpkins, a suffragette living in 1928 London with her friend Flossie, or, as everyone calls her, the Flea. Instead of still being on the front lines of change, the women now lead predictable, comfortable lives, which bothers Mattie as she fondly recalls fighting for the right to vote. But after running into a former suffragette who tries to turn young people toward Fascism, Mattie and the Flea are spurred into forming their own organization for young women called the Amazons, with the goal of educating the next generation to be thoughtful and engaged as opposed to being focused on marriage and going to the movies. When Inez joins the club, Mattie is shocked to discover they have a connected past. Trying to motivate Inez to become a strong person, Mattie inadvertently does something that upsets the Flea and threatens the club. Evans weaves an enchanting tale around Mattie and her circle of friends as they attempt to imbue a new generation with their feminist and antifascist values; readers will be captivated. (Apr.)
The Sunday Times
Mathilda ‘Mattie’ Simpkin is a clever, lovably nonconformist heroine… a vividly complex, sympathetic if flawed protagonist.
Guardian
Affecting...a timely read.
Booklist
Vibrant… Teems with period atmosphere and zesty satiric glee.
APRIL 2019 - AudioFile
Set in 1928, this audiobook is the story of Mattie Simpkin, a former suffragette who founds a club, the Amazons, to educate girls on the importance of their hard-won right to vote. Jane Copland narrates, giving unique voice to a wide range of characters: Mattie; her housemate, “The Flea”; and Ida and Inez, two girls in the Amazons. Copland’s ability to employ accent, tempo, and emotion to give the many characters unique personalities is especially strong with unmotivated Inez and natural leader Ida. The story takes time to get going, but the patient listener will be rewarded with a realistic look at a particular slice of British and women’s history between the two World Wars. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-02-04
The fight is never over for an aging English political militant whose stalwart standards are endangered by emotional baggage.
What became of the suffragettes after the vote was mainly won? This is the question Evans (Their Finest, 2017, etc.) addresses in her latest spirited historical novel. Most became respectable, some turned to good works, some drank too much, and some—like Matilda Simpkin—found it hard to channel their intelligence and drive. Mattie is a force of nature: "If she storms the barricades, they'll certainly stay stormed. She's a one-woman battalion." But now her campaigning days are over, and Mattie is underoccupied—until she forms the Amazons, a girls' club that will teach "knowledge, confidence, ready laughter and a strong overarm throw." In London in 1928, however, Mattie has competition for the children's attention. A couple of wealthy local Fascists have set up a rival club, the Empire Youth League, espousing nationalism, marching, and an admiration for Mussolini. Mattie must rise to the challenge. Evans, an appealing writer with a taste for unusual historical characters and perspectives as well as sly comic surprises, draws a nicely detailed portrait of post-World War I England, a country drawing breath after the devastating military campaign. Her focus on poverty and health, and the challenges facing women of all classes, brings a sense of social outrage (and modernity) to the story. More privately, Mattie shares her home with another ex-suffragette, Florrie Lee, aka The Flea, whose modest, undeclared love for Mattie introduces a quiet yet affecting note of emotional attachment. These simple storylines are complicated by flaws, follies, and compromised good sense in a tale which reveals itself to be a prequel to Crooked Heart, a curious and minor narrative perhaps, but blessed with qualities that are hard to resist.
Evans impresses again, less for the scale of her narrative than for the charm of its large-hearted heroine.
