Product Description

The stunning new novel from the acclaimed author of TRICK OF THE LIGHT and MAGPIE

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193037 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the winter of 1922 Edith Waters and her younger lover, Freddy Bywaters, were found guilty of murdering Percy Waters, Edith's boorish husband. The two lovers were executed in a whirl of publicity in 1923. The case caused a sensation, a crime of passion that gripped the nation's imagination and became the raw material for Jill Dawson's sensual and captivating novel Fred and Edie, a fictional account of the lovers' romance and their subsequent trial, predominantly told through Edie's imaginary letters addressed to her lover, "Darlint Freddie". This is a remarkable novel, that brilliantly evokes the suburban world of 1920s London (T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, published the same year as the trial, runs like a leitmotif throughout the novel). Edie, viewed from the public gallery as "silly, vain" is a superb literary creation--sensual, intelligent, articulate and liberated, bitterly denouncing in her letters to Freddy a world that denies "that our love might be a real love, on a par with other great loves. That just because you are from Norwood and work as a ship's laundry man and I grew up in Stamford Hill and read a certain kind of novel, we are not capable of true emotions, of having feelings and experiences that matter".

Dawson's novel gradually reveals that Edie's "crime" is actually her articulate, contradictory and assertive femininity. "I am not all sweetness and light" she insists, but it is her independent behaviour that ultimately stands trial, as Freddy becomes an increasingly enigmatic and questionable figure on the margins of the novel. Elegantly written and carefully researched, Fred and Edie is as passionate and assured as the tragic heroine it portrays. --Jerry Brotton

The Times
'compelling reading'

Daily Mail
‘Gripping … an engrossing, passionate and tragic story'

Customer Reviews

Poignant, gripping and sad
From the moment you start to read Edie's letters from prison to her lover Fred (who has murdered her husband), there's a dreadful feeling that she's not going to have the happy ending she keeps predicting. The way Edie constantly forgives her young lover for his crime combined with her gentle tellings-off, are incredibly poignant. Fred is very young and there is a sense that he does not understand how marriages work or what Edie really wanted. All this is very cleverly conveyed via Edie's letters.

I absolutely loved this book, it's beautifully written and I was captivated by Edie and Fred and their love affair from the beginning to the tragic, but inevitable end. It prompted me to research the real story of Edith Thompson and Fred Bywaters and in this case truth really is stranger and even more sad than fiction. The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is that in real life Fred was incredibly loyal to Edie, and a victim of her fantasies, whereas in the book you get the impression that he was a bit weak and selfish and I don't think he deserves that.

A book that tells the tragic story of Edith Thompson
I read this book after reading "A pin to see the peepshow" which was written in 1934. Jill Dawson uses extracts from newspaper articles from the trial in 1922, after the murder of Edith Thompson's husband by her lover Frederick Bywaters. This book is beautifully written and I felt that Edie really came to life on the page; she was a vain and passionate woman who escaped from her humdrum marriage by reading romantic fiction and writing dramatic letters to her lover, Bywaters, whilst he was away at sea. Did Edie tempt her much younger lover to commit murder ? The judge and jury certainly thought so and she, along with Bywaters was condemned to death. Her execution was horrific and stories of her being pregnant and her 'insides falling out' started immediately. Jill Dawson's book is a joy and I recommend to anyone that loves a love story, or has an interest in social history.

Wonderfully written...
I loved this novel. I read it over a weekend and literally could not put it down. The overwhelming emotion I was left with was sadness; while awaiting trial, Edie is adamantly buoyant and completely in denial, both in terms of her actions and her fate. Admittedly, I had not heard of this very famous trial, but the words of Jill Dawson have certainly brought it to life for me.
I loved the format - letters can be so incredibly intimate and they give a fantastic insight into Edie's state of mind as she slowly declines. Though they commited a heinous crime, I found myself feeling incredibly sorry for them both -
A tradegy in its truest form.