About the book
In December 1922 Edith Thompson, a smart, bright, lower-middle class woman who worked in a milliner’s shop, was tried for conspiring with her young lover Frederick Bywaters to murder her husband, Percy. The sensational trial, which took place in front of heaving crowds at the Old Bailey, unravelled a real life drama as exciting as any blockbuster: an illicit love affair, a back-street abortion, domestic violence, murder and a double execution. FRED AND EDIE draws together powerful threads between personal memory and public lives, between innocence and responsibility, and between fact and fiction. It is an exploration of a woman caught in the net of her own private fantasy and the conflicts of the era in which she lived, of her muddled attempt to defy convention and reshape her own destiny, and, finally, of the devastation she left in her wake.
Reviewed by Afternoon Reading Group:
This book was well received and the group rated it ‘a bit different’. It was written from Edie’s point of view and was sympathetic. Good insight into female sexuality, especially in the context of an overwhelming and passionate love affair.
Star rating: ***
Hampshire Libraries 
Review by White Lion Reading Group:
Tedious style, but very thought provoking.
Star rating: **+
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Review by White Lion Reading Group:
Tedious style, but very thought provoking.
Star rating: **+
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Review by Waterside Bookworms:
Good read, would like to read more from this author, brought up some interesting ideas.
Star rating: ****
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