Prisons and Prisoners

A moving and evocative account of a suffragette's experience of imprisonment, hunger strikes and force-feeding,first published in 1914.

Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton (1869–1923) was a passionate suffragette and was imprisoned numerous times for her involvement in protests. This book, first published in 1914, is her vivid and moving description of prison conditions, hunger strikes and the trauma of force-feeding. A tale of inspiring stoicism.Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton (1869–1923), granddaughter of writer Edward Bulwer Lytton, became a passionate and militant suffragette after visiting imprisoned activists in 1905. She was arrested twice in 1909, on one occasion for throwing stones at a ministerial car, but was soon released. In 1910, to test whether the treatment of women prisoners differed depending on their class, she created a working-class alter ego, Jane Warton, for a protest in Liverpool. Under that name she was imprisoned and participated in a hunger strike that led to her being force-fed eight times, permanently damaging her health. This account of her experiences, first published in 1914, is a moving insight into the experiences of women who risked their lives and endured great suffering to secure the right to vote. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=lyttco