The Song of Peterloo: heartbreaking historical tale of courage in the face of tragedy

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It is purely awful the way people are treated and what they live through. Yet it shows how Manicians have such amazing inner strength and how they want to better themselves through this torrid time. The Peterloo massacre is widely regarded as one of the most significant events in English political history. On 16 th August 1819 60,000 men, women and children gathered in St Peter’s Field in Central Manchester to hear the radical politician Henry Hunt speak about the need for parliamentary and electoral reform. At this time, Manchester didn’t have a single MP, despite its size and its industrial success. Carolyn O'Brien's dramatic and engaging historical novel takes the events that led up to the 16th August, 1819 but keeps her focus on one young mill worker, Nancy Kay. Deserted by her drunk husband, she works in the mill and looks after an ailing mother as well as bringing up her 'delicate' son, Walter. When a child is maimed in a factory accident, the reader is drawn into a world of cruelty, inequality and the sheer will to survive. The story is told from a variety of points of view: Nancy's friend, Mary who always looks out for Nancy and her family; the reforming mill owner, Samson, recently released from the army who sets up a school for child-workers and Joseph, who falls for Nancy but is morally unscrupulous. Nancy herself is a feisty, strong heroine gradually becoming more radicalised as working conditions deteriorate and food is scarce. She wants to protect her family and the only way she can do this is by joining others who want reform. As you read this you find that the droid excellent and brings both the battle and its problems to life.

One thing I must note about The Song Of Peterloo is that it's very much character-driven. From the beginning, you're introduced to a hefty handful of characters, 90% of whom hold some importance to the overall plot of the book. If you're like me, a lover of character development and of well-founded relationships, you'll definitely find some resonance in The Song Of Peterloo. It stems around Nancy who is struggling and is fed of this continued struggle and decides she wants to do something about it- little does she know what impact her strength has on everyone. It is hoped that the book will appeal to students and lecturers of Romanticism and social history, and to anyone interested in learning more about one of the most seminal events in English history as the 2019 bicentennial approaches.Watch a short video featuring performances of two of the ballads by folk trio Thrup’nny Bits and Dr Morgan discussing her research. A peaceful protest at Manchester’s St Peter’s Field is brought to a bloody end by a deadly cavalry charge of sabre swinging yeomanry. The violent culmination to months of fulminating antipathy between the working and ruling classes ultimately becomes a watershed moment in the fight of the disenfranchised to have a voice and meaning to their superficially inconsequential lives. In his rage-filled sonnet, ‘England in 1819’, Shelley captures the state of the nation at this key moment in time with its ‘despised’ king, ‘Godless’ religion and a ‘stabbed and starved’ people. Under the leadership of Lord Liverpool, according to the historian Robert Reid, England came ‘closer in spirit to that of the early years of the Third Reich that at any other time in history’. Such a startling comparison serves to illustrate the ruthlessness of an unpopular government, supported by an even more unpopular monarchy in a time of unprecedented change. England was undergoing a seismic shift both economically and socially. Nancy is the heroine – a strong female lead with a hard lot in life. Her courage is admirable, but I also loved seeing the story unfold from the perspectives of the other characters, and for me this was a strength of the novel. The reader gets to see not only Nancy’s point of view, but to see her through the eyes of those around her, including Mary, Nancy’s loyal and devoted friend, and the fearsome Adelaide, defender of the status quo.

The novel is structured to powerful effect, the action well-paced, and the setting, early nineteenth century Manchester, is captured with vivid descriptions and authentic details which would surely have required painstaking research. I was really eager to read The Song of Peterloo. I'm not sure exactly what it was that drew me to it, whether it was simply that I enjoy historical fiction, or whether it was reading about a part of history that I knew nothing about, especially aound the 200th anniversary of the massacre at Peterloo. Either way, it was book that really appealed to me and I wasn't disappointed by what I read. This was a well-written novel and it clear that O’Brien has undertaken a lot of research about this event. I found that I learn a lot about this period of history that I only had a vague understanding of. It was interesting to read about the changes being fought to happen and Samson’s desire to educate his mill workers. If you have an interest in history and true events, then I certainly feel this book would appeal. Dr Alison Morgan’s book, Ballads and Songs of Peterloo, is the first to gather more than 70 contemporary songs and poems about the massacre in a single collection.Perhaps the most famous response to the Massacre is Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy, written swiftly in ten days during September 1819, yet unpublished until 1832. Comprising ninety-one fast-paced verses, fuelled by fury yet clear in its rationality, Masque is remarkably similar to the poems being written and published at that time in the radical press. Its famous refrain can still be seen on Transport House in Salford, the former regional headquarters of the Transport and General Workers’ Union: There are various viewpoints in the story but the main characters are Nancy Kay, a mill worker, and the new man in charge of the mill, Samson Wright. Unlike many employers of the time (1819) he is a kinder, more caring man, concerned with the welfare of his workers. On his very first day in reluctant charge, he meets Nancy, a fiery lass, and he is unable to forget the way she tried to stand up to her superiors after an accident at the mill. I liked both characters immensely and thought they were portrayed in a sympathetic and appealing way. The authentic voice of radical England is captured in a new collection of poems and ballads written in the immediate aftermath of the 1819 Peterloo massacre and shared in defiance of Government censorship.