Between Two Fires

Noah Adamson is the first Leader of the Labour Party, torn between his socialism and principled support for votes for women. He is in love with Freda McLaird, a young socialist suffragette. Sylvia Pankhurst wrote the play when imprisoned for sedition in 1920/21, using a contraband pencil on prison issue toilet paper. Rachel Holmes' arrangement of the incomplete text brings the poignant story to life in a startlingly topical drama.

Format: Paperback
Length: 48 pages
Publication date: 16 September 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

Noah Adamson, the inaugural Leader of the Labour Party, finds himself caught in a precarious predicament, torn between his unwavering socialism and his principled stance in favor of women's suffrage, on the one hand, and the more conservative perspectives of many of his colleagues on the other. A middle-aged married man, he is also deeply in love with the young socialist suffragette, Freda McLaird. The future seems bleak for both the cause and the man. However, Noah, fueled by the inspiration of his soulmate, holds onto hope and glimpses of beauty. He eagerly anticipates a time when the movement will gather greater strength and momentum.

This previously unpublished play was penned by Sylvia Pankhurst while she was incarcerated in the notorious HMP Holloway in 1920/21. In solitary confinement, deprived of writing materials, the legendary activist composed this dramatization of earlier times with her beloved Keir Hardie, Labours founding leader, using a contraband pencil on prison-issue toilet paper. It would be nearly a hundred years before Pankhurst's biographer, Rachel Holmes, would uncover the play through meticulous analysis of the delicate fragments scattered within brown envelopes in the archives of the British Library. Holmes' arrangement of the incomplete text brings the poignant story to life in this startlingly relevant drama that resonates deeply with our contemporary times.

Noah Adamson, the inaugural Leader of the Labour Party, finds himself caught in a precarious predicament, torn between his unwavering socialism and his principled stance in favor of women's suffrage, on the one hand, and the more conservative perspectives of many of his colleagues on the other. A middle-aged married man, he is also deeply in love with the young socialist suffragette, Freda McLaird. The future seems bleak for both the cause and the man. However, Noah, fueled by the inspiration of his soulmate, holds onto hope and glimpses of beauty. He eagerly anticipates a time when the movement will gather greater strength and momentum.

This previously unpublished play was penned by Sylvia Pankhurst while she was incarcerated in the notorious HMP Holloway in 1920/21. In solitary confinement, deprived of writing materials, the legendary activist composed this dramatization of earlier times with her beloved Keir Hardie, Labours founding leader, using a contraband pencil on prison-issue toilet paper. It would be nearly a hundred years before Pankhurst's biographer, Rachel Holmes, would uncover the play through meticulous analysis of the delicate fragments scattered within brown envelopes in the archives of the British Library. Holmes' arrangement of the incomplete text brings the poignant story to life in this startlingly relevant drama that resonates deeply with our contemporary times.

Noah Adamson, the inaugural Leader of the Labour Party, finds himself caught in a precarious predicament, torn between his unwavering socialism and his principled stance in favor of women's suffrage, on the one hand, and the more conservative perspectives of many of his colleagues on the other. A middle-aged married man, he is also deeply in love with the young socialist suffragette, Freda McLaird. The future seems bleak for both the cause and the man. However, Noah, fueled by the inspiration of his soulmate, holds onto hope and glimpses of beauty. He eagerly anticipates a time when the movement will gather greater strength and momentum.

This previously unpublished play was penned by Sylvia Pankhurst while she was incarcerated in the notorious HMP Holloway in 1920/21. In solitary confinement, deprived of writing materials, the legendary activist composed this dramatization of earlier times with her beloved Keir Hardie, Labours founding leader, using a contraband pencil on prison-issue toilet paper. It would be nearly a hundred years before Pankhurst's biographer, Rachel Holmes, would uncover the play through meticulous analysis of the delicate fragments scattered within brown envelopes in the archives of the British Library. Holmes' arrangement of the incomplete text brings the poignant story to life in this startlingly relevant drama that resonates deeply with our contemporary times.

Dimension: 198 x 129 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350353848