A Master of Litigation

FINALIST for 2018 RoNAs: Lady Gwendolen Ashworth is an outspoken young woman, with strong opinions on social justice and a cynical view about marriage, which she eschews. She is an embarrassment to her brother, the Earl of Middleton, who is disappointed that none of the eligible young men in Regency society seem willing to take her off his hands. When one of his stable-hands is arrested, Gwendolen secretly hires the handsome Sir Thomas Carnforth, a highly successful barrister with a mysterious past, to defend the boy. This unleashes a chain of events Gwendolen did not anticipate, for her angry brother threatens to force her to marry a man of his choice. Escape seems the only option, but she does not bargain on quite where, and with whom, that will lead her, or how both their lives will be changed for ever.Set in the period 1816-1817 at a time when the Conservative government grew ever more repressive towards protests about high food prices, unemployment and low wages and towards radical leaders who pressed for parliamentary reform. A number of top barristers took on the defence of such cases when they came to court. Sir Thomas Carnforth is my creation of one such.Slave labour continued in British colonies such as the West Indies and British society enjoyed the products of their labour, especially sugar. Social reformers argued that British society operated its own forms of slavery, such as the employment of young children in dangerous occupations in cotton-spinning factories or cleaning chimneys, and that just as much effort should be put into banning such employment.