by Megan Rix
Flora Drummond (1878–1949): known as The General, she was an inspiring public speaker and organizer for the WSPU, imprisoned nine times for her protests.
Hampton Court Palace: royal palace on the River Thames in south-west London, dating from 1515 and lived in by kings and queens from Henry VIII to George II.
Harry Pankhurst (1889–1910): youngest child of Emmeline Pankhurst, who died aged twenty-one.
Herbert and Laura Goulden: Emmeline Pankhurst’s younger brother and his wife. Laura was the first headmistress of Hazelwood School in Palmers Green, North London.
Herbert Henry Asquith (12 September 1852–15 February 1928): prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916, who opposed women’s right to vote.
Hilda Brackenbury (27 April 1832–October 1918): suffragette and supporter of the WSPU. She and her daughters Georgina and Marie were arrested for smashing windows in the West End of London in 1912. Her home, 2 Campden Hill Square, offered members of the WSPU a place to recover when they were released from prison.
Houses of Parliament: the Palace of Westminster in London, the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom: the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
hunger strike: refusing to eat as an act of political protest. Many suffragettes went on hunger strike in prison and they were often force-fed. In 1913 the government replaced force-feeding with the Cat and Mouse Act.
jiu-jitsu: Japanese system of unarmed combat and physical training.
kettling: police tactic of keeping a group of protesters in a small area during a protest.
Lincoln’s Inn House: the WSPU moved into its new headquarters on Kingsway, London, in the summer of 1912. On 30 April 1913 it was raided by the police.
Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780–1839): ruler of the Sikh empire in north-western India and grandfather of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh.
Mary Jane Clarke (1862–1910): suffragette and younger sister of Emmeline Pankhurst. She was arrested for smashing windows on 23 November 1910 and went on hunger strike in Holloway prison. She died three days after being released.
number 10 Downing Street: official home of the prime minister.
omnibus: the first buses to be used in London, from 1829, were horse-drawn vehicles; motor omnibuses were introduced in 1902.
Parliament: law-making body of the United Kingdom, made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Parliamentary bill: idea for a new law that is presented in Parliament. If the bill is approved by the House of Commons, House of Lords and the monarch, it becomes an Act of Parliament and is law.
pit brow: worker, usually female, employed to sort coal at the edge of a coalmine.
Poor Law Guardian: someone who helped to administer the Poor Law and ensure a workhouse was run correctly.
Princess Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh (8 August 1876–22 August 1948): daughter of Duleep Singh, Maharajah of the Punjab, and god-daughter of Queen Victoria. A leading suffragette, she was fined for refusing to pay taxes; she campaigned for equality and justice in both England and India.
road apples: horse droppings
Rosa May Billinghurst (1875–1953): suffragette who was paralysed from the waist down as a child and used a tricycle wheelchair for mobility; she was arrested several times for her part in WSPU protests.
St Stephen’s Entrance: public entrance to the Houses of Parliament, also known as the Strangers’ Entrance.
Strangers’ Gallery: members of the public can enter the Houses of Parliament and watch what’s going on in the House of Commons from this area, now known as the Visitors’ Gallery. The term ‘strangers’ referred to people who were not members of Parliament or staff.
suffrage: right to vote in political elections, also known as the franchise.
suffrage movement: the fact that only wealthy landowners could vote to elect members of Parliament came to be seen as unfair and the belief that everyone should have the right to vote grew throughout the nineteenth century. The 1884 Reform Act allowed more people to vote, but all women and the poorest 40 per cent of adult males were still not allowed to. The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over twenty-one and to women over the age of thirty who owned a certain amount of property. The Equal Franchise Act of 1928 gave equal voting rights to women and men, from the age of twenty-one, with no property restrictions.
suffragette: woman seeking the right to vote through organized protest, particularly a member of a militant organization such as the WSPU. Campaigners who used non-violent tactics were known as suffragists.
Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882–27 September 1960): second daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, a leader of the WSPU and supporter of workers’ rights.
Votes for Women: campaign slogan of the suffragettes and title of the WSPU newspaper from 1907 to 1912. The WSPU newspaper was later called The Suffragette.
water fountain in Parliament Square Garden: the Buxton Memorial Fountain was built in 1866 to celebrate the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834.
Winston Churchill (30 November 1874–24 January 1965): Home Secretary in Asquith’s government from 19 February 1910 to 24 October 1911 and responsible for policing and prisons. He went on to serve twice as prime minister: from 1940 to 1945, leading Britain to victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955.
Women’s Freedom League: group campaigning for women’s suffrage and equality. It was founded in 1907 by seventy members of the WSPU who supported non-violent protest.
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU): main militant organization campaigning for women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1917, led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Its members, known as ‘suffragettes’, adopted the slogan ‘Deeds not Words’, because they believed the best way to win the vote was through direct political action, such as breaking windows, setting fire to unoccupied buildings and going on hunger strike when arrested and imprisoned.
workhouse: public institution that provided the poor people of a parish with board and lodging in return for work.
Acknowledgements
The research for this book has involved meeting and getting to know many wonderful, amazing and helpful people and animals. When Emmeline and the Plucky Pup was first commissioned I was in Manchester and able to visit the museum of Mrs Pankhurst’s home, now situated within the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary. The staff and volunteers there were both very welcoming and informative and I knew I wanted to start my story there.
I’ve been interested in martial arts since I was a child and trained briefly both in the UK and abroad (not that that means I’m particularly adept!). I found Sensei and suffragette Edith Garrud and her training of Mrs Pankhurst’s bodyguards, known as ‘the Amazons’, in jiu-jitsu fascinating. My local jiu-jitsu club was extremely helpful when I went along as part of my research and I’d especially like to thank Sensei Keith Cooper, who not only showed me how to get out of a stranglehold but also how the suffragettes would have been taught to fight using sticks. At an afternoon event I learnt about how the police use martial arts now (and over the course of the last century) from DC Tredwell, watching in awe as Rosi Sexton demonstrated that physical size holds no limitations for a talented Brazilian jiu-jitsuist.
When it came to writing this book it was my pleasure to work once again with editor Carmen McCullough, who commissioned it, with wonderful Mainga Bhima for the drafts that followed through to completion and Emma Jones for the very last part. Copy-editors Daphne Tagg and Frances Evans did their jobs brilliantly, and proofreaders Sarah Hall and Susi Elmer were supremely meticulous – which I’m very grateful for. The cover for the book is just stunning, especially dear little Rascal, and I’d like to thank illustrator Angelo Rinaldi and designer Jan Bielecki. On the PR and Marketing side of things I feel very lucky to have been able to work with Jasmine Joynson and Lucie Sharpe who’ve also been part of the book tours and are l
oved by my dogs, Bella and Freya. Sales experts Tineke Mollemans and Kirsty Bradbury have been with me throughout the writing of all my Megan Rix books and a huge support. Not forgetting my long-time agent and friend Clare Pearson of Eddison Pearson. Thank you.
Having the support of my family makes such a difference and as always I’d like to thank my husband, Eric, who ends up knowing almost more about whatever topic I’m writing on than I do! Sharing an office with him has increased my productivity no end. He also kindly visited the fascinating Workhouse Museum – and took some stunning photographs – when I was unable to go plus he found the vintage photographs of pet dogs living in workhouses, which led to Sniffer’s inclusion in the story. As well as solving the query over the colour of Flora Drummond’s military coat using black-and-white to colour photography software. ☺
Finally, my own dogs, golden retrievers Traffy, Bella and Freya, have been and are a continual source of inspiration and fun. They put up with shorter walks while I was in the midst of writing this book and enjoyed much longer ones when I wasn’t. Bella and Freya have been attending dog training classes at ‘Happy Dogs’ since they were tiny pups and during the writing of this book their trainer, Laura Foster, brought a lively, noisy, funny and utterly adorable Parson Jack Russell terrier puppy called Colin to the classes. Colin helped inspire the character of Rascal when she was a tiny pup, as did the other dogs and puppies that my own dogs have met over the years. When Traffy was still very young her best friend was a little Staffie puppy called Jelly, who used to have the most adorable sulks where he would curl up and not look at his ‘mum’ when he was asked to do something he didn’t want to. Recently, Bella’s been helping to teach a two-year-old Staffie called Daisy to grow more confident in the river. Daisy loves playing with her ball in the water but was nervous of bringing it back when she got out of her depth. Bella would swim out and fetch the ball for her and drop it next to Daisy, who’d then run up the riverbank with it ready for the ball to be thrown again. The river itself and the woods around it are forever changing on our walks throughout the year when we’ll see foxes, deer, badgers, cormorants, herons, kingfishers and even otters at different times. I find it an unending source of writing inspiration as well as the perfect place to reflect and plan future books. ☺
If you’ve enjoyed Emmeline’s adventures with Rascal, you’ll love reading about Little Houdini, the kitten who’s destined to be a birthday present for Winston Churchill!
Turn the page to meet him …
Megan Rix
WINSTON AND THE MARMALADE CAT
Chapter 1
The small kitten raced across the icy wasteland after his prey, but the yellow autumn leaf was held by the wind and flew just ahead of him, out of reach of the kitten’s paws.
Determined not to lose it, the kitten ran on, leaving the den where his mother and his brothers and sisters still slept far behind.
When the wind finally released the leaf and it dropped to the ground, the kitten pounced on it with a crunch and stared down at his prey, triumphant. Then he spotted another leaf dancing in the wind, another leaf that needed to be caught before it could escape. He released the first one to dash after the second, but then another leaf fell to the side of him and he darted after that instead.
Sometimes he jumped up to catch the fleeing leaves mid-air. Sometimes he pounced on them when they hit the ground, but there were too many crisp late November leaves for one small kitten to be able to catch them all.
The kitten looked back again at the hawthorn bush that his family was hidden in and gave a miaow, but none of them came to help.
He watched as a sparrow flew above him, then spied a worm that disappeared back below the ground before the hungry kitten could reach it.
In front of him, the kitten spied a long, thin metal tunnel lying on the ground. When he poked his head inside it he saw a mouse on the grass at the other end. The kitten’s heart beat fast with excitement and he crouched low as he squeezed into the tunnel and headed towards it.
A moment later the kitten gave a cry as the tunnel lifted off the ground. He slid forward and was covered with thick, black wet mud that stung his eyes. He tried to cry out again but the mud went into his mouth and made him cough.
Worst of all came a great clang followed by a terrifying roar.
The kitten trembled as the roar turned into a juddering hum, and he curled up into a muddy ball in the darkness.
Alone and very afraid.
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First published 2018
Text copyright © Megan Rix, 2018
Cover artwork copyright © Angelo Rinaldi, 2018
Extract from Winston and the Marmalade Cat copyright © Megan Rix, 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover illustration by Angelo Rinaldi
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ISBN: 978–0–141–38574–7
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