No Surrender

by Constance Elizabeth Maud

Written from the midst of the struggle for female suffrage, Constance Elizabeth Maud’s novel No Surrender (1911) is a Call to Arms. It is a dramatic narrative portraying key players and historical events in the battle for the Vote for Women in Britain. Jenny Clegg is a Lancashire millgirl working long, hard hours under unhealthy conditions in order to support her mother and younger siblings, only to have her father take possession of her savings. In order to seek the rights to improved work conditions, equal pay, and many other human rights, she joins the movement of women seeking political representation. The perspectives of the genteel and working classes, men, as well as the Antis, are presented. (Summary by Lisa Reichert)

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Feminism, Historical, British Literature, Adult Fiction

Audiobook

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Constance Elizabeth Maud (1857-1929) was an author and Suffragette.

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Surrender is one of a surprisingly few suffragette novels, it is I am sure the only novel I have read from this time that centres wholly on women’s suffrage. William: an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton; Persephone book number one also has a suffragette as a central character but that novel concerns itself with war rather than suffrage. No Surrender then does seem to be a remarkable novel, not only for the story it tells – and that really is remarkable, but also as a brilliant piece of social history. It left me wondering why there are so few suffragette novels written at the time the movement was in full swing. The realities of women’s suffrage, which have been captured by Constance Maud in her 1911 novel, were quite an eye opener for me. I thought I knew about suffragettes, I thought I had fully understood why it is so important that I use my vote, I thought I had understood exactly what those women had been fighting for and against. It turns out I only knew half of it; votes were only part of the matter.
In No Surrender we meet Jenny Clegg and Mary O’Neil, two passionately determined young women from very different backgrounds. Mary is from an Anglo Irish aristocratic family, Jenny is a Lancashire mill girl in a shawl and clogs. Jenny is one of many thousands of working class women who were fully aware of the real inequalities for women; she had seen and experienced it in her own family. Jenny’s mother and sister are regularly beaten by their husbands, they have no legal right to their own children, no way of obtaining an expensive divorce – should the idea even occur to them. When Jenny’s mother reveals her paltry savings to her husband – money she has saved to help her sick son, he immediately takes the money from her, she has he declares, no right to it. When Jenny’s sister discovers her husband has sent their two eldest children to his uncle in Australia without her knowledge, there is nothing she can do about it, she has no parental rights over the children she gave birth to, those rights belong solely to the father. There is an enormous disparity between wages for men and women – (something that has continued until relatively recently in some quarters) – even leading some poor women to selling themselves.
“The interminable jolting drive in Black Maria, under such airless crowded conditions as had caused two women to faint, had landed them at last at the grim gates of the old prison, where one by one they had been unpacked and passed in. After going through the preliminary ceremonies of inscribing their names and ages, and aiding in recording a prosaic description of eyes, hair, height, and other personal details, they had then been driven, cattle-wise, into these narrow pens, there to wait for many a weary hour the doctor’s summons. After this would come the bath and the donning of the prison garments, and finally, at some hour far into the night – for there had been many convictions on this occasion – rest on the hard prison bed.”
Jenny and Mary meet, becoming friends and associates, their fight takes them to London, and inevitably to prison – they make other friends just as passionate and committed as they. However there was massive opposition to women’s suffrage, from politicians, working men, the privileged classes and maybe most surprisingly many other women. Their fight is a frustrating and difficult one. Jenny leaves her work at the mill to work full time with the Women’s Union – her intelligence and determination marking her out early on as a perfect champion for the cause. Suffragettes were seen as unwomanly, troublesome, violent and hysterical, their grievances seen as being mainly the preserve of man and not for women to worry about. Mary and Jenny and their differing perspectives, represent all the women who worked together to bring about the changes that women so desperately needed to make their lives, and the lives of their children better.
The thing that will remain with me after finishing this novel is the absolute commitment and determination of these women. How much easier would have been – having suffered two weeks in prison with the bed bugs horrible food and the threat of losing their jobs upon release - to have thought I’ve done my bit – and to leave the struggle for someone else to take up. Not these women, and the freedoms and equality women now enjoy are due to these nameless women whose cry of “No Surrender” rang through the walls of Holloway and the drawing rooms of the aristocracy and out on to the streets, a cry that was taken up by more and more voices. This is a novel I would say should be read by all women – maybe by all people.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book.
The heroine Jenny is a mill worker who's passion is fired by 'Votes for women'
her life and work becomes entwined with the mill owners daughter, Mary O'Neil.
They are both determined that women should be equal to men.
Although this is fiction it brings to life how these women felt and the lengths they would go to for their cause.

[Fenella Forster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woman should read this important book, particularly now we have the election coming up. Although it is actually a novel published in 1911, it gives a fascinating insight as to what it was really like to be a Suffragette, how they were treated by the police, by their families, and almost worst of all, by other women who often poured scorn and contempt upon them.

The details in the prisons and force feeding are excruciating to read.

Constance Maud, the author, was herself a Suffragette, and she says although the characters are fictitious, all the events and details are absolutely accurate.

I rarely cry at books and films but at the end, this one really had me in tears.

Please read, and please use your vote this May 2015.

Denise Barnes

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1911. It is the story of people in the women's suffrage movement in England. Women across the USA didn't get the right to vote until 1920 but the story includes a woman visiting from one of the states where they already did give women the right to vote.

The author was herself involved with the movement and you get the feel for what it was like for women who were thrown into prison and mistreated. Many of the rude comments and insults will sound familiar to readers today. Not much has changed in the hundred years since then.

What's also interesting and familiar is the fact that many men are in support of the suffragists, and many women are shown to be against the getting the vote. The story includes the ways in which some men and women who start out against it eventually decide in favor of it.

[Kirsty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very much looking forward to this, but the amount of dialect used here was both overdone and jarring to read, so much so that I decided not to carry on with it.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Surrender is the story of some northern mill workers, and some more well-to-do ladies and their fight to win Votes for Women. It is quite badly written, an awful lot of it is written in dialect so I felt I was wading through some of the chapters. The book is essentially a rather heavy handed piece of propaganda. That being said, when you look at it in it's historical context, it does have value. It was written in 1911, by someone who clearly felt passionate about getting the vote, and it tells the story of working class women and their involvement in the fight, something that is barely mentioned nowadays.
While I have no intention of ever reading this book again, I am glad I've read it and would say it is worth reading if you have an interest in the subject.

[JaNel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You'd know fast enough if you hadn't got it. Your wages, your hours, your pensions, every blessed thing in life you're glad you've got, has come to you because of that vote of yours."--Jenny to policeman

"How to cope with these cases, each one involving a problem for which he had neither time nor understanding, a problem requiring for its true solution the readjustment of the very foundations of social life, the readjustment of the relation of the two halves of the human family."--the magistrate

"Fortunately for us, most men are much better than their laws..
"That's so...but it's the bad men the laws are made for, and it's the bad men who shelter behind them."

“…fought bitter antagonism and …that unreasoning hatred which rises up to oppose any reform to purify social conditions or loosen chains…”

[Noells · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written dose of female empowerment. I added it to my list of favorite books straightaway!

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was confounded when I first read about No Surrender on the Persephone Books website. “A suffragette novel” it said. As if that was something remarkable!

And remarkable it was. For all the woman writers, all the books about women’s’ lives I have read I couldn’t think of anything I had read about the suffragette movement.

I must confess that the only fictional creation that came to mind was Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins!

Clearly I had a great deal to learn.

And I have learned a great deal from No Surrender, a novel from the very heart of the movement that strove to give women votes and voices.

The first thing I learned was that it cut across all classes.

I met Jenny, a mill hand whose dark family circumstances illuminated horrible inequalities.

Her mother worked in the mill and her father spent the pittance she earned on drink and on gambling. Her money was his by right. Her sister was beaten by a brutal husband who took her children away from her. She had no right to divorce her husband and no right to even a say in what happened to her children.

It was easy to see why Jenny was drawn to the suffragette movement. Because it wasn’t just about giving women votes. It was about giving them rights at work, and a say in what happened in their families.

That drew Mary too. She was a mill-owner’s daughter, she had a privileged life, but she saw the injustices that so many women faced, and she wanted to do something about it.

Jenny’s and Mary’s paths crossed, and both were drawn deeper into the suffragette cause.

I watched as they did everything they could to forward that cause. They went to meetings and rallies. They made banners. They ambushed MPs and public figures. They drafted women who had votes in other countries to support them.

I heard the stories of so many women. And I saw them winning hearts and minds with passionate and reasoned arguments.

They won mine. I was caught up, and I was swept away.

But the suffragettes had many opponents. Some who were happy with what they had and saw no need for change. Some who were fearful of change. And some who were wary of the responsibilities that would come with rights.

I understood, but I wanted to shake them.

And the establishment moved against the suffragettes. They would be imprisoned for trivial, trivial things. And when they protested, when they were driven to hunger strikes they would be brutally force-fed. It was appalling and it was heart-breaking.

But they fought on …

I have to say at this point that No Surrender in not a great novel. The prose is dull, the characterisation is simplistic and one or two elements just don’t work.

But it illuminates an era and it makes the case for women’s suffrage quite magnificently.

That’s why I’ve been struggling to write about it. because No Surrender is all about that era and that case, and nothing I can write can convey that as the author can. She does it brilliantly.

I was moved by the suffragettes’ stories. I was impressed by their conviction and their courage. I was infuriated by their opponents.

I was educated. And I thought about what they had achieved, about how long it had taken for many of their aims to be achieved, about so many inequalities that still exist. So much to think about.

For all of these reasons, No Surrender should be required reading.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can’t read this and not use your vote.

No Surrender was published at the very height of first-wave feminism. It is an excruciating read: characters endure wife beatings, have no custody of their children and must pay their way into a divorce. The Suffragettes are treated as second division criminals rather than political prisoners and are subjected to the torture of force-feeding. The blatant misogynistic attitudes are infuriating, but perhaps even more so are the women who advocate against the Suffragettes.

But at its core, the novel is an uplifting one. Although the prose is somewhat uninspired by its word choice, it is clear and full of wit and warm humour. The characters are relatively simplistic, but humbling. The narrative is infused with amusing incidents that illustrate the ludicrous measures to which the Suffragettes needed to resort to even gain attention: they send themselves as parcels to Downing Street, they disguise themselves as housemaids to serve a dinner guest a Petition, they pretend to be a fire brigade as they announce details for a meeting/rally.

It is a fascinating historical document, capturing perfectly the contemporary attitudes and moral orthodoxy concerning equality, especially the working class contribution to the Cause. No Surrender is sometimes explicit in its agenda, but isn’t that exactly what was needed in 1911? The novel strikes me as a wonderful introduction to feminism. But even for seasoned feminists, it’s an incredibly important work - and worth the read just for the haunting and deeply moving imagery of the cries of “No surrender!” echoing through the cells of Holloway.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the dialogue is less than subtle but the book is very interesting regarding the involvement of working class women Suffragettes. As it was written in 1911, some years before women gained the vote, the urgency of Suffragette activism is captured very well. It also contains some very harrowing depictions of prison life, including force feeding of Suffragette activists on hunger strike. The book also provides social context to some of the dreadful issues facing working class women who had no representation despite paying the same tax as men. This book opened my eyes to the struggle for Suffrage across the class divide.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply moving take on working-class contribution to the suffragette movement, literally one of the best books I've ever read!

[Ivana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel bursting with life of all classes, devotion and struggle of women’s suffrage movement in GB. (Reminder - they had to fight for it roughly from 1866 to 1928!)
For those reluctant to read it - just imagine Pride and prejudice taking place in North England and elsewhere among working class people-activists. A gem indeed!
Unfortunately, some arguments seem to be — almost contemporary (marriage as the only ladder for a woman, feminism destroying families, etc). Anyway, huge thanks to Persephone Books for their work! (Much appreciated also in Central Europe.)

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book when listening to one of the women's prize for fiction podcasts earlier this year and it did not disappoint as it felt like stepping into a time machine to experience at first hand the experience of those women who fought for the basic right to vote upon laws that fundamentally affect their everyday lives. Written in 1911 the book is a page turner as we meet Jenny Clegg a mill worker in a northern town who defies her father and budding labour party candidate and budding love interest to join the suffrage movement and move to London and the March on parliament.
Quickly marked out as a budding leader she , and her friend Mary o'Neil , from a higher social class fight for the cause.
The book has scenes that visit many of the methods adopted by the suffragettes including Jenny posting herself to 10 downing street, to disrupting as a maid a meal at which cabinet members attend and church services, to smashing windows.
Jenny and friends are imprisoned and the brutality inflicted by forces of the law ; police ,magistrates, prison officers and doctors, upon women who should be political prisoners is a sad indictment on the politics of the time although having put down the book wonder when watching the news how much has changed in 100 years. The scenes of forced feeding are inevitable and horrifying but it is the treatment of a young woman whose illegitimate baby dies highlights the inequality which eventually needed women's votes and ability to influence laws that affect them.
Definitely at times dated in style and a northern accent that grates on the page but that did not detract from a brilliant read and because it is a unique piece of history it is a 5* book .

[VG · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘No Surrender’ is a suffragette novel written at the height of the suffrage cause - 1911 - and although fictional, its provenance makes it both a fascinating book and piece of social history.

It focuses on two women, Jenny and Mary, as they become increasingly involved with the movement, but also considers their wider families - Jenny, a mill-worker, has juggled exhausting work with fretting over the brother (who has had a factory accident prior to the start of the book and is unable to work), sister (a beaten wife, whose children have been sent away by her abusive husband) and her mother, who is constantly placating her mean husband. Meanwhile, Mary’s background could not be further from Jenny’s - an upper class woman whose family enjoy privilege and are not inclined towards change. At the end of her twenties, Mary is heading towards ‘spinsterhood’ and is, in turns, patronised, ridiculed and scorned by her relatives. When the two join forces and head to London, they realise just how much work there is to do.

Thoroughly interesting, ‘No Surrender’ is a rare example of a suffragette book written at the time - it is a shame that there are not many more.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1911, this is a political tract thinly disguised as a novel. It's passionate about female emancipation and is a really fascinating read from a century on. The author believes that the world will be a vastly improved place when women get the vote because they will have the insight and experience to make better choices than men. Her descriptions of women who are "Antis", because they think that men should naturally be leaders, are really interesting given the state of the world right now - wonder what she would have made of the many women who voted for Trump. Descriptions of arrest and force feeding are powerful and rage inducing, and the sheer idealism of the writing and of the whole campaign is humbling. Couldn't read this and not use your vote...

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1911, this is very much a political novel about the Suffragettes, showing their solidarity across class boundaries and what happened to them when they went to jail. The arguments for giving the vote to women are always put across well, in dialogue, but you can still sometimes feel harangued as a reader. I didn't mind that, I thought it worked as a novel and the background was fascinating.

[Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is quite an extraordinary book. It took a while to get into it but it was worth the effort. Never an easy read but as a kind of early documentory novel it is astonishing, harrowing and head-bangingly anger making.
A lucky Toast

[Lisa Bywell · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I love discovering books like this! A Suffragette novel, written in 1911, it is a magnificent call to arms for the women's movement. We are so lucky to be able to read and absorb such rich social history.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this suffragette novel. It is very political and certainly told me more about the suffragettes and also what they suffered.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 years from the granting of (limited) women’s suffrage, it seemed appropriate to read one of the few suffragette novels written by one of the participants, ‘No Surrender’.

I was worried at first - the initial chapter is set in a fictional Lancashire town with a group of characters talking in a stagey Lancashire dialogue. I’m not a fan of complaining northerners at the best of times, but the twenty pages of ‘oop gan em on t’mill’ felt interminable. Luckily, the action moves down south.

Although it is a polemical work, it also managed to be comic at times and harrowing at others. I watched the 2015 film ‘Suffragette’ immediately after finishing the book and although ‘No Surrender’ and that film shared a sense of women joining as part of a cause, this book highlighted a sense of joy and playfulness. Constance Maud was chiefly a novelist of farce, and this plays best in scenes where suffragettes sit in a church in suffragette colours and freak out a group of cabinet ministers, or when they crash a posh dinner party.

It was fascinating hearing the arguments of the suffragettes and the anti-suffragettes. It was also interesting to learn about the suffragists, who were the less radical wing of the ‘votes-for-women’ brigade. It was clear that those against the votes were worried about women as an unknown quality - and that the women thought the vote would be the key to solving all women’s oppression. From a period, just over a hundred years later, when women have received the vote but not solved the inequality - there’s both a hope and sadness that comes from the desires of the women in their cause together.

The earlier scenes in prison were unpleasant, and the later ones more unpleasant still, yet the fire of purpose and the community of fellow sufferers raises those horrible scenes. Yes, the women are humiliated, strapped down and fed Bovril through their nose - but the last chapter, where the women march past together, makes it seem that they endure for a reason.

Those dreams are not fully realised a hundred years later, but I think Constance Maud would look at the world with a much needed jolt of positivity.

[Geraldine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really fascinating as a primary source of how suffragettes like the author thought and saw the movement for women's right to vote at the time. It would make an interesting comparison with Woolf's A Room of one's Own although about 18 years separate the 2 pieces of writing (1911 and 1929)and women had gained the vote by 1928.
It must be said the love story in NS is highly implausible and adds nothing, but probably Maud thought it was necessary to draw readers in. Her style is over the top sometimes for modern readers but driven by her passion for her argument.
I notice many readers didn't like the use of writing northern accents as Maud heard them. That didn't put me off, although I wondered initially about the use of an accent that wasn't her own. However, decided that it was respectful of her to give non-received pronunciation its place.
On the positive side, the description of force-feeding was powerfully done, inevitably the question of unmarried motherhood crops up (leading to tragedy) and the description of the mass march by Suffragettes/Suffragists at the end was inspiring. Overall, it made me think about the focus of these women and how they had a clear vision of what changes for the better having the vote could lead to. It is inspiring and, even though Maud shows the prejudices of her time, I think we can still learn from this as there is still so much work to do for women's rights.

[BB Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qua tiểu thuyết, tác giả đã cho thấy phụ nữ đã phải đấu tranh dài như thế nào vì nh���ng quyền lợi cơ bản của mình, những quyền lợi được coi là hiển nhiên ở thời đại này hoá ra lại xa vời đến thế nào với những phụ nữ ở nước Anh vào đầu thế kỉ XX. Cách họ bị đối xử bất công cũng phần nào gợi cho mình nhớ đến chế độ phân biệt chủng tộc. Những người phụ nữ làm lượng công việc như đàn ông nhưng nhận lương ít hơn hẳn, họ còn không có quyền với những đứa con của mình, không có quyền sở hữu tài sản riêng dù đó do chính bàn tay họ làm ra. Điểm khéo léo ở trong tiểu thuyết này là dù phụ nữ đấu tranh cho quyền lợi của mình nhưng sự đấu tranh của mỗi nhân vật nữ đều không hạ thấp quan điểm của cánh đàn ông mà là sát cánh bên họ, sau cùng giữa các nhân vật nam nữ chính trong truyện đều tìm được tiếng nói chung. Cốt truyện hấp dẫn nhưng tình tiết xây dựng không ấn tượng, đều quen thuộc.
Nhân vật được khắc hoạ không mấy rõ nét, dù cho mỗi nhân vật nữ đều có nét quyến rũ riêng trong tính cách. Mình ấn tượng nhất với nhân vật Alice.
Phần lớn nội dung trong truyện là đối thoại giữa các nhân vật, sự tranh luận, hùng biện với mỗi quan điểm của họ. Đoạn đối thoại cuối truyện có nhân vật Ấn Độ đọc mệt dễ sợ.
Điểm yếu của tiểu thuyết này vì tập trung thể hiện quan điểm bằng lời nói, suy nghĩ nhân vật nên hầu hết diễn biến trong truyện đều kể gián tiếp, tức là mọi việc gần như xong hết mới được nhân vật kể lại. Chỉ vài diễn biến được kể trực tiếp, hấp dẫn nhất lúc Mary tuyệt thực.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was awe inspiring to think this book was wrote in 1911 and feel so fresh today is remarkable. It centres on the suffrage of Jenny a mill worker and her friend Mary who comes from a more privileged background but there goal is the same. This book goes through the fight these women and many more besides went to make people see that women needed the vote. The chapter where the women are force feed and spending time squalid conditions is very upsetting but makes you realise what these people did for women who now lucky to be to vote and work and have normal rights like every man can. This book does also touch the working mans struggle also and this whole book is an sight to our social history. My favourite bit was the chapter called Canterbury tales where each women who’s been arrested tell each other why they became a suffragette which makes ponder each persons reasons for being part of the movement. I think this book should be better known and taught in schools the reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was the typos and mistakes where it’s been reprinted although thankful it has but it did retract sometimes from the flow of the story. The story itself it’s five stars plus

[Amanda Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

What No Surrender may miss in pure literary quality, it absolutely delivers in capturing the ardent and nuanced hope the Suffragettes maintained in their union-strong fight. There is a real sense that Maud truly sees her male counterparts' refusal to join the fight and many women's entrenched self-disenfranchisement with equally forgiving and understanding compassion. Lots of characters come through to enlightenment in the novel that I might have difficulty believing could were I the one undergoing mill labour and forced feedings—but this faith in even the darkest enemy's ability to change is one that really calls to my forever-caring soul. Dialogue can be clumsy, and characters can sometimes be one-dimensional in virtue, but both may also simply reflect the purity of purpose with which No Surrender was released in 1911.

[Đinh Thị Ngọc (Demete) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Đọc Không khuất phục của E. Maud, tôi thực sự xúc động trước hành trình kiên cường của những người phụ nữ trong phong trào đòi quyền bầu cử ở Anh. Họ không chỉ đấu tranh cho quyền chính trị, mà còn cho phẩm giá, cho quyền được sống như một con người tự do. Hình ảnh Jenny và Mary – hai người phụ nữ khác biệt về xuất thân nhưng cùng chung khát vọng – khiến tôi khâm phục và cảm phục sâu sắc. E. Maud đã viết bằng tất cả sự thấu hiểu và niềm tin mãnh liệt vào sức mạnh của phụ nữ. Tác phẩm khiến tôi nhận ra rằng, tự do và bình đẳng không bao giờ là điều tự nhiên có được; nó được xây dựng từ máu, nước mắt và lòng dũng cảm. Không khuất phục là tiếng gọi của ý thức, của niềm tin vào sức mạnh bất diệt của con người.

[Tia]

This was my first introduction to the Suffragette movement which was gaining traction in England in the beginning of the 20th century. The book is setup as a series of vignettes detailing both sides of the fight, the arguments and motivations of the women (and men) asking for women’s suffrage and the frankly stomach-churning arguments of the men (and women) against the vote. It is a reminder that the things we take for granted now only came into being after a long, protracted, difficult battle fought by the generations before us.
Through all of history, there never has been a better time to be a women as right now. May the future be even better.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every book about the Suffragist Movement is a further example of the fight women have had over the years in order to obtain equality. This book, which is a novel and was written in 1911, gives many examples of the inequalities at the time in all walks of life, as well as the appalling treatment of the Suffragettes whilst in prison. If any woman doubts the need to utilise her vote, even in this day and age, she should read this book.

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1911, at the height of the women's suffrage movement in Britain, NO SURRENDER masterfully straddles the line between journalism and historical fiction. Throughout the novel, there are factually accurate and stirring portrayals of suffragette protests and incidents, as well as their arguments in favor of giving women the vote. The actions are carried out by fictional characters, but a close reading will give evidence that they are not-too-thinly-veiled representations of real people, such as Lady Constance Lytton and the Pankhursts.

Some of the protests verge on the humorous - suffragettes having themselves delivered, as parcels, to the Prime Minister's front door with their petitions, and a large group of women pretending to be a fire brigade with a call to meeting, instead of a call to fire. Suffrage supporters might ambush politicians after worship services, attend local and national government meetings, or take employment in an aristocrat's household just to be able to present a dignitary with the suffrage petition at a prominent dinner party. They would hand out pamphlets and copies of the petition for people to read, and spread their message through public forums and street-corner oratory. Some suffragettes would take more aggressive actions to draw attention to their cause, such as throwing rocks at the windows of anti-suffrage supporters. As the works became more violent, the police took a more active role in containing and detaining the suffragettes.

It was the courtroom and imprisonment scenes that had the strongest impact for me. The suffragettes were protesting for political equality. However, precisely because they could not vote, they were not treated as political prisoners by the judicial system. While political prisoners were given relatively comfortable quarters, quality food, and some liberties; suffragettes were condemned to the same class as thieves and drunkards. They were afforded almost no comforts, housed in squalid quarters, and if they dared to protest (as most of them did, for the injustices were plentiful inside as well as out of prison) the women were put in the inhumane conditions of solitary confinement. Many women protested this punishment the only way they could, by refusing food. To keep the hunger striking prisoners alive, prison staff would force-feed them. The horrific details of these forced feedings are not spared in NO SURRENDER, and the actions themselves are akin to rape. To think that women would willingly submit to such torture is proof of how stridently they believed in their cause.

There are also representations of the "Anti's" who stridently opposed women's suffrage. What became clear through reading NO SURRENDER was how strong the British class divides were, and how those divides played into the levels of sympathy and empathy afforded to suffragettes by others. The novel spends time with the aristocracy, the upper class, and the working class - exploring their lifestyles, prejudices, and how each group responds to the idea of women's suffrage. No matter the social class, women had practically no power or authority. A woman had no agency over her own children; one character's husband sends their children to live in Australia, without any notification or consent toward his wife, and she can do nothing about it. Lower-class women and girls worked for long hours in excruciating conditions, and few cares were made about their welfare by the employers. The meager wages they earned were legally belonging to their father/husband. For the women of the upper classes this was of little concern because they did not need to earn a living, but for working-class women it meant that they were prisoners in their lives and homes. One of the great strengths of NO SURRENDER is its focus on the lower class women, and their struggles as part of the greater social movement in which women's suffrage found stead.

As a work of historical interest, the significance of NO SURRENDER is self-evident. However, it struggles as a work of literature. The dialogue, especially of the Northern Brits, is stilted and full of stereotypical turn of phrase. It is distinctly different from the speech of the Londoners, which may serve to illustrate further class divides, but that point is practically invalidated by the main character, Jenny Clegg, who is a working-class Northern girl yet she has exceptionally educated-sounding speech. There is little in the way of plot throughout the novel. In fact, the book isn't divided into chapters, but rather sections called "Scenes". They seem to illustrate different parts and points in the Women's Suffrage movement, and function better when thought of as linked short stories rather than chapters in a cohesive novel. There are also instances of a romance between Jenny Clegg and two different men, but both relationship seem overly contrived and terribly inauthentic.

NO SURRENDER can be viewed as a novel of two parts. First, it is an honest, rational, and emotionally raw exposition on the women's suffrage movement in early twentieth century Britain, for women of all social classes. Although the characters are fictional, the events are factual and historically faithful. It is in terms of plot and dialogue that the novel suffers. It is not a great work of fiction, but it is a great work.

[Clare Paterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really terrific read. Written in 1911 well before women got the vote jit follows a working class mill worker and a minor aristocrat fighting for the vote. Lots of campaigning but it really struck a chord with me. These were such brave women regarded as such looney tunes...they were deeply scorned but their commitment was total. Really glad to have read it.