Product Description

The story of a courageous complex woman who defied social convention.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #365945 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
'A fine written and well-researched life of great British hero' Lord Baker of Dorking (Kenneth Baker)

About the Author
Jean Hatton is a teacher and historian, and author of 'The Light Bearers'. She has tow grown-up sons and lives in Buckinghamshire.

Customer Reviews

A heroine for our times
I read Jean Hatton's "Betsy" out of a general love for historical biography rather than from any specific interest in Elizabeth Fry, but I also sensed that Fry would prove to be someone I could relate to. This book made relating to her very easy, with its affectionate yet uncompromising portrait of her character and its perfectly balanced discussion of the public and private aspects of her life.

The first line, "Betsy Gurney was afraid of the dark", engendered a fledgling cringe in me. Was this an aspiring fiction writer projecting feelings onto her subject? Reading further, I found that the first page did indeed read like fiction - that, I took it, was what was meant by "dramatic biography" in the subtitle. The interludes of fiction-like depiction of feelings throughout the book were a little difficult to get used to, and initially made me think: How do you know that? Did Fry write that in her journal? If so, where's the reference?

This is a minor criticism, however. Fiction-like though some parts of the book are, they are well written and far more absorbing than many an actual novel. The evidently painstaking research that fuels the book inspires confidence that Fry did indeed indicate her feelings, and I felt I could trust the author to convey accurately what she had discovered from Fry's journals.

I suppose "Betsy" must be described as "popular history" - a term that I hate, with its implications of "dumbed down". This biography, however, respects its readers and credits them with the intelligence to cope without the sort of inane references ("of course they didn't have TV in those days," "in 1757 a landau was a bit like having a Rolls Royce" etc.) that I have encountered many times in popular history books. Instead, it presents a lively, interesting and enlightening account of Elizabeth Fry's life and work that is accessible to the non-specialist reader.

What comes across most startlingly is Fry's monumental internal conflict. I would not have got very far reading about a frumpy old saint. Hatton reveals that the young Elizabeth was torn between the Plain Quaker tradition and the glittering Regency parties beloved by her sisters, that she married a man who could not meet her intellect or understand her commitment to social reform, that she made her children felt less important than her public life, that she turned to laudanum and port wine to quiet the incapacitating anxiety that plagued her. A heroine who was just as screwed up as the rest of us, then, and one who can be far more of an inspiration to modern women than the distant, infallible matron as which she has often been portrayed.

A well-written biography
My daughter had to select a subject for her Victorians topic. She chose to do Elizabeth Fry. As we helped her with the initial research I realised how little I knew about Elizabeth or Betsy and chose this book to close the ignorance gap.
The book is better written than I expected and on the whole I enjoyed it and reading about Betsy. The last few chapters lost me a bit and I did not finish it. However, I would recommend it as a good source for understanding Betsy, her world and the challenges she faced.