Other Women: Emma Flint

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Just a few years after the end of World War I, Britain is still coming to terms with the high price of victory. The country is mourning its dead, and thousands upon thousands of women are living without husbands, sweethearts, fathers, brothers and sons. Single and unattached, at 37 Bea Cade isn’t one of them and she cuts a solitary figure as she attempts to conjure up a new life in London. It’s six years since the end of the Great War and the ladies in the typing pool eagerly anticipate the arrival of new employee Mr Thomas Ryan. As he walks in he smiles at Beatrice Cade and that smile sure does something to her! Beatrice is 37, unmarried and lives in a ladies club in Bloomsbury. Then there’s Kate Ryan, Thomas’ wife who presents a good face to the world of the state of their marriage, in particular to their daughter Judith. This is an extremely dramatic, well written story of a love triangle with the focus being on the impact of it on both women. It’s told in alternating perspectives by Beatrice in the third person and by Kate in the first which makes for a fascinating contrast.

Le due sorelle si vogliono bene, ma sicuramente fanno fatica a comprendersi: le loro vite e le loro aspirazioni sono a tal punto differenti da posizionarsi ai poli opposti in una possibile scala di gradazioni. Two women's world collide, and neither of them will ever be the same again. They will remain connected forever. Kate Ryan is a wife, a mother, and an accomplished liar. She has managed to build an enviable life with her husband and young daughter. To anyone looking in from the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family. Planning to buy Other Women for your group? Buy books from Hive or from Bookshop.org and support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no extra cost to you. Emma Flint grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. She studied English and History at the University of St Andrews and is a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing Program in London. Since childhood, Flint has read reports of real-life crimes, and over the years has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of murder cases and notorious historical figures, as well as a fascination with unconventional women - past, present, and fictional. Flint lives and works in London.Perhaps it also lies in a stubborn determination to hope that men like these are just misunderstood. A belief that if they’d just met the right woman, she might have saved them from a life of murder and mayhem. Or a belief that if they met the right woman after their arrest, she might still save them from damnation, by encouraging to express remorse and ask for forgiveness.

This will surely soon be a major film or global TV series. Hopefully Kate Winslet it out there right now working on being Miss Cade. It is brilliant. I was swept up in a turmoil of emotion as I read. This is a book that starts as a love story and turns into something much darker indeed. -- Harriet Tyce, author of The Lies You Told Overall, I felt that this is too agenda-driven with a clear ideological urge to show Kate's agency in punishing the husband who seduced and abandoned Bea - a muted form of female solidarity against masculine violence and disdain. That's fine but it's like all the seams are showing and the characters just aren't given enough life to carry the story. This is fine as a commute book but unsatisfying as a follow-up to Flint's marvellous Little Deaths. The case was huge in England at the time: it was a journalist’s dream, involving a brutal murder, a clandestine love affair, an illegitimate pregnancy – and, at the heart of it, a handsome and charismatic family man who was leading a secret double life.

The BBC Radio 2 Book Club announced on 24 January that its new home is on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. Una vita come tante, in fondo, quella di Beatrice Cade, fatta di lavoro, solitudine e qualche acquisto nei negozi di una Londra che tenta di ricominciare dopo la prima guerra mondiale. Emma Flint’s portrayal of this determined, lonely woman is excellent. The reader appreciates both her vulnerability, given the power of Tom’s attraction over her, and her bravery as she resolutely stands up to this confident man in a way that no other woman has ever done. Ironically, it is this bravery which eventually inspires her rival to do the same. Kate comes to the conclusion that, whilst it suits the press and the public to see Bea as a seductress, ‘…she did not seduce Tom, any more than I seduced him when I was fifteen and green as grass. She is not capable of seducing anyone – but this is all anyone will know about her.’

On the south coast of England, an anguished moment between lovers becomes a horrific murder. And two women who should never have met are connected forever. I liked the way the book unfolded from the contrasting two POVs of the murdered lover and the murderer's wife. Poignant and elegant, brutal and beautiful, Other Women, is a masterclass in modern storytelling. -- Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually Other Women is an immersive read and a book I could hardly bear to put down. This is an author with a talent for characterisation and scene setting, and her ear for authentic dialogue is sharp and true. This is historical crime fiction, but its message still rings loud and clear 100 years on, within the tandem narratives of two women wronged by a master manipulator. Dowdy, easily dismissed spinster Bea and dutiful wife and mother Kate are given equal billing here and neither of them should be taken for granted. They are women with surprising depths – in stark contrast to the conniving but shallow Tom Ryan. The 1920s was a time of great social, political and economic change. The world was mourning the loss of almost 20 million military personnel and civilians during World War I, followed by the devastating effects of Spanish Flu which killed 50 million people globally.I have to admit to reading this with searing fury boiling in my stomach especially when I discovered Bea is just 37 (my age). Flint does a brilliant job of highlighting the societal expectations and pressures placed on unattached women at this time, despite the greater acceptance of women working. How their lives were vulnerable to judgement about their character and appearance. Which is then ramped up into incredulous victim shaming and misogyny during the trial.

A story of Murder, deceit, obsession, and betrayal, Other Women, this book gives a voice to the women, the murder victim, and the wife of the accused. Inspired by the true story of a murder that took place over 100 years ago and looks at the lengths we will go to to protect the ones we love. Set in the early 1920s, this clever mix of romance, thriller and courtroom drama proves love and heartbreak never ages, whatever the era. * Woman & Home * I don’t have any easy answers to this, but perhaps one answer lies in the fairy tale belief that beauty equals goodness. This maxim is usually applied to women, but Mahon and Bundy – conventionally attractive men – seemed to have no trouble attracting admirers who believed their stories even when the extent of their crimes were revealed.Other Women is a book about fantasy and the lengths that people will go to to protect what they love, whether that's another adult, a child, or the dream of another kind of life. * Take a Break * Kate is also in her thirties and also works in an office. However, she's a proud mother and wife. Married for thirteen years, with a young daughter, Kate is proud of her family and her house in a middle class area of London. The book was selected with the help of a panel of library staff from across the UK. Our readers loved Other Women – here are some of their comments: In 2020, 47,000 women and girls were killed by their partner or by a family member1. This means that on average a woman or girl somewhere in the worldl is killed by someone close to her every eleven minutes. The killers are boyfriends, partners, friends, husbands, fathers, brothers. They are men that these women should be able to trust. They are the very men they should feel safest with. Set in the 1920s, we learn of the societal expectations women faced, what choices they had, how they were unfairly judged and treated… and the devastating effects that had.