Old Baggage audiobook

It's 1928. Matilda Simpkin, rooting through a cupboard, comes across an old wooden club - an old possession of hers, unseen for more than a decade.Mattie (Matilda) was a militant during the Women's Suffrage Campaign. She has given speeches, marched, smashed windows, she's even heckled Winston Churchill. You name it and Mattie has probably done it. She's even been jailed five times. Twirling the wooden club, she has an idea, but is it a good one?Mattie feels she has no purpose in life. She's now middle aged and feels she is seen by others as old baggage. When Mattie meets an old suffragette friend who is now a facist, Mattie decides to take on a new challenge. Although this story can be a bit slow in parts, it can also be engaging and funny in others. It is quite informative on the facts about the suffragettes lives. You can't help but like Mattie, a wonderful character. She makes mistakes but is not afraid to fight for what she believes in.I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishing and the author Lissa Evans for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An utterly charming, substantive, and emotionally textured novel

I've finished Old Baggage and I am bereft! This is beautiful, beautiful writing with characters that live and breathe. I loved Mattie in Crooked Heart. How wonderful to spend more time with her. I just hope we meet her again. This is a gorgeous, warm novel and I can't recommend it enough. Review to follow very shortly on For Winter Nights.

It’s been a few years since I read Lissa Evans’ excellent novel “Crooked Heart”, but I remember loving her vivid characters and witty writing style. So when I heard that her new novel is a prequel to this earlier book I become intensely curious. “Crooked Heart” opened with a poignant description of Mattie, an aging intellectual who was very active in the Suffragette movement, before describing the journey her ward Noel takes out of London to escape the The Blitz in 1940. “Old Baggage” tells Mattie’s story prior to when the boy Noel came to live with her and depicts Britain at an interesting stage of its political history. It’s 1928 and many people - including some of the women involved in the Suffragette movement - feel that their overall aims have been achieved because of the new Equal Franchise Act which granted equal voting rights to women and men at the age of 21. However, Mattie is still frustrated by other inequalities between the sexes which persist and there’s also worrying fascist groups gaining in popularity – one of which is led by a former Suffragette. Mattie is the most endearing sort of stickler (who I admire but would be terrified to meet in real life) as she persists in delivering lectures to mostly bored crowds and has a new scheme to empower lackadaisical local girls by marching them through the heath like young activists/explorers. While this all makes it sound like a novel top heavy on history and politics it really doesn’t read that way. Rather, it’s a warm-hearted, comic and ultimately poignant portrayal of a group of women trying to balance their personal desires/values against the limitations of society at that time. Read my full review of Old Baggage by Lissa Evans on LonesomeReader

Lissa Evans is one of those writers who can really write--so many fine, quotable sentences throughout this book made me laugh (genuinely) aloud. She can create memorable, over-the-top characters who spring off the page, vibrating with life. Mattie Simpkin, former suffragette, is one of them, an upper-class woman who was passionate about The Cause and now searches for new meaning in life by beginning her own society of young Amazons in a public park.*spoilers*So why only four stars? I must confess that this book felt a bit more like a character sketch than a novel. Things happen, but there is a meandering, arbitrary quality to how plot points pop up. Finally, I was also a bit disappointed by the end. Mattie becomes, over and over again, a caregiver in her life, and while this may be realistic to some degree, I felt the character deserved more. I also felt the end of the tale felt a bit conventional in the way it showcased out of wedlock pregnancy, a reconstructed family, and the crotchety old woman saving a boy child rather than finding herself.Still, books which portray suffragettes with humanity and respect are surprisingly hard to come by and we need them. Without The Cause, I would not be writing this today, free, and with at least some control over my own destiny.

What an astonishing book!! In Matilda Simpkins, there is a character with so much depth and background to explore - it's just that she has reached a point in her life where her past was a million more times exciting than her present! She used to be part of the suffragete movement and her time fighting for the rights of women saw her jailed a number of times, attending numerous marches and even heckling Churchill. And now in middle age she finds nothing even comes close to recreating that buzz and spark in her. The only enjoyment she seems to get out of life nowadays is passing on advice to neighbours - whether they want it or not!!When she finds herself under the watch of the police again after a street robbery, she soon finds a new way of feeling involved in the world and inspiring a new generation of young girls to be educated and feel inspired to think more of themselves as she starts a Girls Club on Hampstead Heath, teaching them a variety of skills.There are a number of other important characters we get to meet along the way - from Florrie 'The Flea' who lives with Mattie and is a dear friend and a calming influence on her friend, to Ida who is a young girl whose family expect very little from her other than to cook for her brothers at home, and they tease her when she shows an interest in wanting more out of life and for herself.I found this to be such an inspiring read. We take so much for granted nowadays as women and it is always eye-opening to go back and look at the struggles women went through and to have a character of Mattie who is fearless, most of the time, is really enlightening and stirring. Mattie and Florrie have many times when their friendship is tested, there are fallings out, but it showed beautifully the bond they do share that when times are tough they are there for one another.I loved spending time with these characters over the years in this book and highly recommend everyone to pick this book up and hopefully feel as proud and uplifted as I did after reading this!

Mattie Simpkins feels at a loss. It's 1928 and now middle-aged, Mattie years for her youth when she joined the suffragette movement to fight for the right to vote. Mattie misses the camaraderie of her fellow fighters, as well as the found family aspect of the cause, while also afraid that the young generation of women aren't prepared to fight for what they should have. Mattie ends up setting up a group for young women to teach them survival skills that include camping, javelin throwing and the occasional fire starting, and ends up learning more about herself.I listened to this book on audiobook narrated by Joanna Scanlan, and I highly recommend this method of reading this book as Joanna just impersonated the character of Mattie so so well, and if there was ever to be a movie made of this book, she is the only person who could play Mattie.I really enjoyed this book, and while some of that was because of the excellent audiobook, I also enjoyed the story a lot - a look at what happens following an extreme bout of activism, and what happens when you've won or not quite won, but everyone goes back to normal and you're left still striving for more change? It reminded me of some conversations I've read in Repealed, about the women who fought for years for abortion rights in Ireland and how when the Eight was repealed, how empty some people felt afterwards and how easily others forgot that there was more to be done.Mattie is the type of character that just steamrolls off the page and into your life, and I feel like I need a bit of Mattie in my every day life to keep me motivated and striving for success. She' a great motivational speaker, and so much belief in her convictions. I also loved the tender yet fragile relationship she had with the Flea, and some of the discourse surrounding their relationship and Mattie's reactions to people thinking it more than friendship.I also loved Ida and her storyline, and that firm line of privilege. It's easy to forget that Mattie in particular was born into a life of privilege which allowed her to make choices and use her time as a Suffragette rather than being a woman forced to work to put food on the table/or stay at home with a multitude of children and not able to protest or even have that brain space or energy. Mattie also ends up a woman with property allowing her that vote, while women like The Flea don't get it for a long time. Ida is very different to the other girls in The Amazons, yet the end proved with Mattie's help she was able to step up and achieve something many only dream of.I think the end of the book was a little bit weak, and felt a tad rushed and I would have liked more time with Mattie and the Flea at the end. The epilogue was very sweet (at first it annoyed me what happened to Ida but I was glad the story went the unconventional route with her refusing to give up what she had gotten through hard work).

Stop and think about this title of the latest book from Lissa Evans.Old Baggage, can mean different things to different people. It can be used as a description of some older lady, past her prime and of no use to anyone or society. It can be the baggage we bring from the past into the present. It can be actual tangible items, it can be thoughts, emotions and feelings. It can simply be an old bag with treasures inside that has sat unopened for a long time.But what if it is all those things as Lissa Evans cleverly weaves her tale.Matilda Simpkin, Mattie to her friends is all the things I have described and more. She is a lady of a certain age, who having been a militant activist within the Suffragette movement has now reached a stage in life where she finds she is of no use, she has no purpose. She is simply seen by others as Old Baggage.But upon discovering a wooden club in an old bag, she wonders perhaps if there is still not more to do and can you still be idealistic and principled ten years after the main event.However, times have changed and they are moving in a different direction and when Mattie encounters someone from her past what she believes in suddenly becomes lost in some other campaign.I was drawn to all the characters, even though Mattie dominates the pages. Those she interacts with like The Flea (read the book to find out why she is called that) and young Ida who they both take under their wing. Mattie sees Ida as the future but, Ida sees a very different future and Mattie needs to change that, she did not fight for no reason.This is a enthralling read, which did make me stop and think what became of the suffragettes and this is an ideal book to celebrate the centenary of those who fought so I can have a vote.  I enjoyed all the historical aspects of it and how I was taken back to the cells of Holloway and reminded that it was another ten years before all women had the vote.This book is funny and moving and quietly powerful. The way the book is structured is perhaps  different from the norm (no defined chapters) but somehow this all adds to the story, as an old bag is found, old stories come tumbling out and they might well be able to define the future of women all over the world.

Visit the locations in the novelThis was such a joy to read and extremely apt and poignant in the year we’re all supporting and remembering what these woman did for us. These were the early days of feminism and women’s rights but it’s told in such a poignant, warm witty way that it feels like you’re stepping into a sepia photo, a moment in history with some of the loveliest women I’ve met in a book. I really wanted them to pop by for a cup of tea after I’d read it, I missed them so much!Lissa Evans has really achieved something special with this book. It’s packed full of information woven into a charming tale so you never feel you’re ‘learning’ but you do feel so much wiser and enlighted by the end. Curious even and that’s no bad thing with a subject matter as important as this one.I’d love to see this on the TV. I’d go down to the set and hug Mattie and Florrie for real!

I am in awe of Lissa Evans. Although firmly in the bracket of popular historical fiction, her work wears its research lightly, and she educates, entertains, does memorable characters and wonderful dialogue that vividly brings the cast to life, while being socially/politically on point (boos for the fascists, cheers for the plucky suffragists) in a funny, warm, sad, satisfying page-turner. I downed this tasty brew in two gulps and thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in the late 20s and early 30s, it’s the prequel to ‘Crooked heart’ - also a ripping read - starring the majestic Matty Simpkin, a colossus of a main character, former WSPU firebrand, and a woman for whom the word ‘indomitable’ was invented. The story arc is quite slight - Miss Simpkin assembles a girls’ activity group to exercise bodies and brains and develop backbone, but finds herself competing for hearts and minds with a fascist-run group, also looking to engage the local youth for more sinister reasons. A denouement ensues, Matty is tumbled from her pedestal through her own folly, and everything basically goes tits up. There are side plots and family intrigues but that’s about it. It follows (I think) the formula of Greek tragedy - the tragic flaw, excessive pride, reversal of fortune, suffering, and realisation - which perhaps gave this superficially slight tale a momentous feel. That and the enormous character of Matty, the most memorable of heroines, and an utterly splendid creation. At the same time as being warm, wise, witty etc, Evans gives a stark depiction of the lot of women at the time. Women’s lives blighted by lack of birth control, education and health care; the plight of single women scraping a living, girls with little opportunity to fulfil their potential, and the sense of loss and frustration in the generation who had found such purpose and camaraderie in the suffrage movement and war work. It’s a vivid slice of social history, without being didactic, and makes you realise, gratefully, the transformation that the NHS and welfare state created not long after. It also needs to be said that Lissa Evans is an excellent writer and just does everything right - story, character, setting, imagery, language, period detail, humour, pathos. Ticked all my boxes for a totally engaging while not-too-challenging read.

I love Lissa's writing - it's funny, uncompromising and quietly beautiful. This story, about a suffragette trying to work out where she fits into the world now that her cause has been won, is wonderfully poignant and lovely. (14+)*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*