Widowland

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LONDON, 1953. Thirteen years have passed since England surrendered to the Nazis and formed a Grand Alliance with Germany. It was forced to adopt many of its oppressive ideologies, one of which was the strict classification of women into hierarchical groups based on the perceived value they brought to society. The year is 1953, the British Royal Family is "missing". England is awaiting the crowning of King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis. Women have been relegated to second class citizens and are being slotted into castes. History and literature are being changed to reflect Nazi ideology. Living in this dystopian mix is Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged class, who has a job in the Cultural Ministry rewriting classic works of literature. I’d like to think that nothing like this could happen here, but the overturning of Roe V Wade and the subsequent assault on women’s reproductive autonomy, as well as the censorship of library books around the country tells me differently. There is a large proportion of our political elite that would turn this country into a fascist, totalitarian state if given the chance. The book is set in an imagined world (oh really?) just shortly after WWII, 1953, and women have once again lost the gain that they had achieved after the war. Well, perhaps not all of the women, only those that are wealthy, young, beautiful, and breedable. Germany won the European war and has established a chaste system for women that states what they can and cannot do, wear, eat, work or reproduce. The government is powerful and dictatorish and people are powerless and manipulated to be cruel and oppressive.

The fact that he had been a well-known writer made his death at once worse and better. While I never worry about forgetting what he looked or sounded like because there are numerous videos of him on YouTube, I still haven’t brought myself to watch them. More than anything, in the past few months it was the image of the Queen, sitting alone at Prince Philip’s funeral, that became emblematic of what disappears at the end of a marriage. It’s not just an intimate friend who’s vanished but part of yourself. Your partner is the custodian of memories that only the two of you shared, so their death can feel like losing a chunk of your identity. A deep vault of knowledge is gone. A whole archive of in-jokes. A universe of facts, ranging from the profound to the extremely trivial, from how you like your tea to the ridiculous things your children did, and your private couple-etiquette when bored at parties. Marriage is its own country, whose customs and language are known only to its two inhabitants.The thrilling sequel to Widowland, a feminist dystopian novel set in an alternative history that terrifyingly imagines what a British alliance with Germany would look like if the Nazis had won WWII. Apart from hearing that my first novel was to be published (sitting at my desk at the Daily Telegraph) it would be the day I went walking with my uncle through Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire and we came unexpectedly across the village of Adlestrop, made famous by the Edward Thomas poem. It felt like serendipity because we had been talking about poetry and the First World War. Someone had framed the poem by a bench, and we stood and read it. Edward Thomas could have been standing right beside us. There was a strange, almost eerie, feeling of transcendence, of literature and life merging together. Like Robert Harris’s Fatherland and C. J. Sansom’s Dominion, this novel imagines that rather than the Allies defeating Germany and the Axis powers in World War II, Britain has become part of a greater Europe controlled by Europe. With maybe slightly more autonomy than other European nations, Britain has become a repressive regime, reflecting many of the same abusive racial, social and sexual rules of Germany. Having written the last chapters of Widowland, a real-life dystopia engulfed the world. For me, the events of 2020 turned out to be yet another example of how lives can be transformed in the blink of an eye, and people can adapt to changes that theyhad previously found unimaginable. In ‘Queen High’ these qualities continue creating an intelligent and thought provoking novel that is also very exciting. I found it engaging and certainly a worthy sequel to ‘Widowland’.

adopted and women have been subject to classification into hierarchical groups based on the perceived value they brought to society. There is an underground movement of gatherings where people read poetry. As part of her covert work Rose is sent to infiltrate meetings and gather information. While reluctant she really has no choice but to become a Poet Hunter. Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged Geli class, remembers life from before the war but knows better than to let it show. She works for the Ministry of Culture, rewriting the classics of English literature to ensure there are no subversive thoughts that will give women any ideas. A chilling thriller with an alternate-history twist...highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review) I admire Carey’s ability to tell a riveting tale of a dystopian society. I had lavished ‘Widowland’ with praise for its powerful storyline, the attention to detailing the everyday lives in the 1950s Anglo-Saxon Alliance, and its celebration of the power of literature.

WIDOWLAND, by C. J. Carey, is set in 1953 in an alternative London. Rather than fight Nazism in 1940, Britain sued for peace, and has lived with occupation ever since.

Now the Alliance is planning the festivities for the Coronation of King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis. They are determined that it should all go smooth, especially the visit of the Leader to England. But some resistors are writing subversive graffiti on public buildings and the Alliance is determined to stop this at all costs. C. J. Carey has given us an extremely readable and entertaining book in Widowland. It is a unique look on the power of literature, fiction as well as nonfiction, and the impact it can have on public opinion and shaping the future. As historical fiction it paints a vivid and realistic vision of what censorship can bring. Most readers will enjoy the plot as well as the characters. The subject matter would provide opportunities for book clubs to discuss content as well as the underlying societal implications. The book, WIDOWLAND, opens in 1953. There is excitement in the air. After 13 years, the powers that be, have granted everyone a day off from work so that everyone can watch the coronation of Edward VIII and Wallis as king and queen. Televisions are being set up all over the kingdom so everyone will be able to watch the festivities. Only later will Edward realize that he has no power. The leader from Germany plans to attend.As a life-long devotee of alternative history, I've seen so damn many "Germans win WWII" ideas that I refelxively shy away from reading yet another one. This one, being the second in a series I didn't read the first one of, would usually get zero attention from me for both those reasons. The way this subverted my defenses was to offer me a golden moment: My abiding contempt for the Windsors leads me to be amused and more than a little pleased that things turn out badly for them in this story. In 1953, in post war England, after England surrendered to Germany, life is totally under the control of the Alliance-aka the Protectorate- and its rigid rules. Women are subjected to a caste system which classifies them into hierarchical groups according to their perceived value to society. Like its literary ancestor Nineteen Eighty Four, Carey considers how a totalitarian state can reconstruct our way of thinking. This is very much dystopian fiction for book-lovers however as Rose analyses the heroines of literature and works to bring them into line with the Protectorate. Thus, Elizabeth Bennet becomes meek and learns her place. Jo March tones down her anger, sets down her pen and accepts her lot. Rose is startled by Jane Eyre, whose heroine questions her low status and then does not show sympathy to Mr Rochester when it is revealed that he has the affliction of an insane wife. The rules are that, 'No female protagonist should be overly intelligent, dominant or subversive, no woman should be rewarded for challenging a man, and no narrative should undermine in any way the Protector’s views of the natural relationship between the sexes.' I found this ordinance fascinating given the current literary landscape which bristles with trigger warnings and tuttings over problematic plots. Because even as Rose 'corrects' these books, their original messages are seeping through and her ossified mind is beginning to wake up.