The Unborn Dreams of Clara Riley

This is the haunting story of two very different women in Edwardian England who break the law and outrage society: Clara Riley a washer woman burdened with the memory of two children – one abandoned, the other murdered – and Christina Audley-Jones, a committed suffragist  and  Clara’s wealthy employer.  When Clara becomes pregnant again,  Christina, defying the law, procures an abortion for her. Neither woman counts on the burden of guilt which  Clara’s action brings with it, and when, in an unguarded moment she breaks her silence,  the full weight of the law comes down on both of them. In very different ways the two women confront the  merciless judgements  and the hypocrisy  of  the times. Kathy Page superbly captures the social and political climate of England before the first World War.

‘Compassionate and absorbing.’ Pauline Willis, The Guardian.