DANGEROUS WOMEN Book Club Kit

Dear Reader, Since the day in 2009 when I saw the Rajah Quilt hanging in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with it.

It was there with hundreds of other examples of patchwork from all over the world, part of an exhibition called Quilts. I’ve been very interested in patchwork for many years, even though I cannot sew and the only craft I’ve ever taken up with any success is knitting. There it was, spread over a white wall and when I read the notice accompanying it, I was struck by three things. First, the fact that the ship Rajah was taking women prisoners to the colony of Van Diemen’s Land (present-day Tasmania). I knew that transportation was used to remove male prisoners to the distant British colony, but hadn’t realized that women had been sent there too, since the late eighteenth century.

The second fact that caught my eye was that on this voyage, in 1841, the convict women were accompanied by a matron, Kezia Hayter, who was only twenty-three and related to painters at the court of Queen Victoria.

The third fact, the one that really made me stop in my tracks, was this: by the time the ship arrived at its destination, Kezia Hayter was engaged to be married to the captain of the Rajah.

Why, I wondered, had no one written about this extraordinary piece of art? I was immediately interested in finding out how it was made, in what circumstances, and how events unfolded.

The Rajah Quilt

There’s a great deal known about this particular voyage. We have the captain’s log, Kezia’s diaries, and the names of the convict women and the crimes for which they were being transported. And we have the quilt, which now hangs in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

The person who helped me the most turned out to be an old school friend of mine, who came into my life as if by magic, just as I was starting to do research. She’s Carolyn Ferguson, whom I hadn’t seen for many decades, but who turned out to have written about the Rajah Quilt and Kezia Hayter and whose work on textiles of the period was invaluable.

I changed the names of the women in my story because the descendants of the real women still live in Australia and Tasmania.

I was interested in exploring how the women (mostly poor and uneducated and whose crimes were mainly theft—pickpocketing or receiving stolen goods—and forgery) came to terms with being removed from everything they knew and sent to the other side of the world. What must it have been like to be in the middle of the ocean, shut up in spaces that were far from salubrious, with others you had never met? What if you were homesick or had frail mental health? What if you found yourself lying next to someone who wouldn’t think twice about stealing your few possessions while you were sleeping? Who could you trust? How could you make friends? Everything that happened to characters in a drama like Orange Is the New Black would be even worse in these circumstances.

And how would a very young woman deal with and help to discipline almost two hundred convicts and persuade them to sit down and stitch a coverlet of such extraordinary beauty? It’s true that Kezia Hayter had been working in prisons in England, under the guidance of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, but still, it must have taken enormous reserves of character. Kezia was very devout and that was clearly a source of great strength to her.

Also, Captain Ferguson and Kezia clearly saw eye to eye when it came to the management of the women in their charge.

Embroidery details on the Rajah Quilt

I added a mystery element to the story of the voyage that is entirely fictitious. This is a novel and not a history and while I’ve tried not to have my Kezia say or do anything that would shock the real Kezia, I have taken liberties with the timings of certain known things in order to make the suspense greater. I have also changed all names, in order not to offend any descendants of the real women who made the Rajah Quilt.

I really hope that everyone who reads this novel will enjoy it. Do write and tell me your thoughts.

Hope Adams

A TALE OF TWO CITIES Charles Dickens There’s a reason why this novel about the beginning of the French Revolution is a classic. It is terrific. Full of wonderful characters and tumultuous events, it’s a book that brings to life an enormously turbulent time with great emotional impact.

WOLF HALL, BRING UP THE BODIES, and THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT Hilary Mantel Yes, I know it’s three books and I’m cheating, but this trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s confidant and adviser, are all part of one enormous piece of fictional magic. It requires stamina. The last book alone is almost nine hundred pages long, but the whole experience is hugely rewarding and engrossing. Don’t be scared of the length. Mantel is among the very best writers alive today and these novels are her masterpiece.

My Top Five HISTORICAL NOVELS DISSOLUTION C. J. Sansom Thomas Cromwell, the hero of Mantel’s three novels, is somewhat of a villain in this book and the ones that follow it. Dissolution is the first in a long series of outstanding crime novels that have as their hero (and detective) a hunchback lawyer called Matthew Shardlake. He’s a mostly wonderful character and his adventures, which follow the reign of Henry VIII as Mantel’s do, are regarded by many as being even better than Mantel’s more literary stories. I love them both equally, so I’m not being drawn into any fights, but Sansom is writing detective stories, and in his tales, Thomas Cromwell is mostly offstage.

He’s Shardlake’s boss and not the most obliging boss either. You won’t regret following the lawyer on his adventures.

MOBY DICK Herman Melville

AN AMERICAN BOY Andrew Taylor A gripping and very moving story about the young Edgar Allan Poe in England. Taylor has written many historical novels since, including the series that began with The Ashes of London, but this one is a favorite of mine.

Does this novel count as a historical novel?

I’m saying it does. I approached it with enormous trepidation, thinking that I was biting off more than I could chew. I read it at first in small doses, thinking I would take in a little every night, as people read a portion of the Bible, say. But I was surprised by its readability and I was literally swept away by its force and amazing scope. It’s the most overwhelming reading experience and I ended up loving it. It’s stayed with me ever since.

There’s a Twitter account called Moby Dick and I retweet quotes from the book almost every day. I love the idea of Melville’s words being retweeted.

About Hope Adams Hope Adams was born in Jerusalem and spent her early childhood in many different countries, such as Nigeria and British North Borneo. She went to Roedean School in Brighton, and from there to St. Hilda’s College, Oxford.

© Sophie Hannah

Discussion Questions 1.

Transportation, the act of sending convicted criminals to exile in penal colonies across the globe, was a harsh sentence.

But in Dangerous Women, there are at least two characters who regard leaving England as an escape. Can you sympathize with this viewpoint?

2.

Kezia Hayter was a deeply religious young woman, which translates in the novel as her search for justice and mercy in the face of an unspeakably horrible act. Are there other aspects of the narrative that reflect Kezia’s faith?

3.

The story plays out through the eyes of the three main female characters. What do you think it might have been like told through the voices of three men? For example, James Donovan or the captain?

4.

The Rajah Quilt was the inspiration for this novel, but much of the novel could be told even if no quilt had been made. What difference does its making have on the story?

5.

The women aboard the Rajah are in many ways deeply flawed. But one could argue that the motivation for their crimes came from a desire to make things better for people in some way (especially for Clara or Hattie). Do you think this is right?

6.

Similarly, many of the female convicts were convicted of crimes they committed because of their poverty. Did the nature of their crimes fit the punishment they received? Do you think you would have been more understanding of their crimes?

7.

The voyage of the Rajah in 1841 was a very peaceful and pleasant one, according to the logs we have of the trip. One woman died of natural causes and there was not much ill health. But, as they say, “happiness writes white.” What difference does it make to have a suspense element in the mix?

8.

Do you think Clara deserves a second chance even though she used deception and lies to get it?