'Fred & Edie' explores the true story of Edith Thompson, a woman no less notorious in her time than Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. Set in Ilford in the early 1920s, an era when the Great War had left a backwash of lop-sided morality, and yet the roles for women were more confused than ever, this is a beguiling story of adultery, murder and a spectacular public trial.
Drawing on sensational newspaper reports of the time and interspersed with imaginary scenes and monologues, as well as real and imagined love letters by Edie to her younger lover Fred, the novel creates an intimate, tantalising voice for Edie; teasing out answers to a compelling mystery: how did a suburban book-keeper become an adulterer, an accused murderess and a famous hanged woman to boot, all in less than two tumultuous years?
