November 2018 - your views on Violet Douglas Pennant

Thank you to readers who have taken the trouble to send me comments on “The rise and fall of Violet Douglas Pennant”, which I’m delighted to say has been well received by many.
Here are a selection:

• The research is impeccable and the assessment of it is fair-minded.
• I can’t put it down.
• The subject matter is compelling but you have also helped with the pace in the way you have approached it all.
• I found it totally absorbing, really enjoyed it, notwithstanding the feelings of outrage and frustration at what happened to Violet.
• I loved how each chapter gives a sense of atmosphere and of the times, very nice domestic details which bring it to life. Not a dry old biography at all!
• Impressed with the depth and detail of your research too.
• I don’t usually go for historical novels but the story had enough suspense to keep me engaged and I enjoyed it. I guess it opened my eyes a bit because I’d never really taken any interest in that wealthy strata of society where everything was/is about who you know.
• I had some difficulty in associating with Violet’s need to clear her name or understanding the drive with which she pursued that over such a long period. Didn’t you get frustrated when you were researching and writing that she wouldn’t let it go and put her energy into making a new life for herself?
• It can’t have been an easy time in the first world war to be able, female and not allowed to do the job properly!
• Her letter to Lloyd George was far too long, but I think that if these or similar events had happened today, she would have been able to employ a solicitor expert in employment law, who would have made mincemeat of Lord Weir!
• Thank you for shedding so much light on what seems to have been a shambolic, chaotic and really not very nice period of history at the end of WW1. I thought the parallel with the Dreyfuss Case in France was so appropriate, and, in today’s world, there are also lessons which can and should be applied.

 
If you have any feedback on this or my fictional novels, there is now an email address specially for readers: SLFisher.Readers@btconnect.com
Would love to hear from you and will do my best to reply.
NB I will not use any reader email addresses so acquired for anything else, or pass them on.