{"product_id":"9781526644978-james-john","title":"James and John","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA True Story of Prejudice and Murder\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. A raw, unexpected portrait of Britain’s grandeur, wealth, energy, cruelty and hypocrisy in the age of liberalism’\u003c\/b\u003e RORY STEWART\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A shocking story of prejudice and injustice, told in meticulous detail' \u003c\/b\u003eKEIR STARMER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom award-winning historian and \u003ci\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author Chris Bryant MP, \u003ci\u003eJames and John \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of what it meant to be gay in early 19th-century Britain through the lens of a landmark trial.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThey had nothing to expect from the mercy of the crown; their doom was sealed; no plea could be urged in extenuation of their crime, and they well knew that for them there was no hope in this world.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Charles Dickens wrote these tragic lines he was penning fact, not fiction. He had visited the condemned cells at the \u003cb\u003einfamous prison at Newgate\u003c\/b\u003e, where seventeen men who had been sentenced to death were awaiting news of their pleas for mercy. Two men stood out: James Pratt and John Smith, who had been convicted of homosexuality. Theirs was ‘an unnatural offence’, a crime so unmentionable it was never named. That was why they alone despaired and, as the turnkey told Dickens, why they alone were ‘dead men’. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 1830s ushered in great change in Britain. In a few short years the government swept away slavery, rotten boroughs, child labour, bribery and corruption in elections, the ban on trades unions and civil marriage. They also curtailed the ‘bloody code’ that treated 200 petty crimes as capital offences. Some thought the death penalty itself was wrong. There had not been a hanging at Newgate for two years; hundreds were reprieved. Yet when the King met with his ‘hanging’ Cabinet, they decided to reprieve all bar James and John. When the two men were led to the gallows, the crowd hissed and shouted. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this \u003cb\u003emasterful work of history, Chris Bryant\u003c\/b\u003e delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history – \u003cb\u003ebut whose story has been lost, until now.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41513885728865,"sku":"9781526644978","price":22.71,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_28394398.jpg?v=1722584407","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781526644978-james-john","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}