The Secret Letter

Author/Guide: Kerry Barrett

Why a Booktrail?

1910, 2019: Two women across the years, across two locations and one cause.

ISBN: B07L7XQM88
Genre: Fiction, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

London, 1910. Twenty-one-year-old Esther Watkins would do anything for the Suffragette cause. Imprisoned, force-fed and beaten, she is determined to fight for what she believes is right – no matter what it costs her. With new love Joseph by her side, will she get the better future she dreams of?

Kent, 2019. With her marriage in tatters, school teacher Lizzie Armstrong moves to sleepy Elm Heath for a fresh start, and her pupils and the community soon steal her heart. So when the school is threatened with closure Lizzie knows she has to fight, and she looks to the school’s founder for inspiration.

What makes Esther, born and bred in London, a proud Suffragette, suddenly leave the city and escape to Elm Heath? And when Lizzie uncovers Esther’s heartbreaking secret, could it give her the strength she needs to save not just the school, but her new beginning too?

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Travel Guide

Travel via London and Kent via A secret Letter

Follow Kerry Barret around London in #Authorsonlocation

Kent

The fictional school in Kent where Lizzie works is Elm Heath Primary. A new school nearby is attracting more students and so Lizzie and the staff have to come up with more ways of attracting new pupils to the school. Lizzie starts to look into its history and comes across its founder Esther Watkins. The more she looks, the more interesting facts she finds.

London

Esther Watkins’s story begins in London where she is a suffragette who is advocating for women’s rights to vote among other rights. Esther is thrown in prison for her protesting which makes her sad for many reasons. She wants to be a teacher and thinks this will ruin her chances. This is the story of divided loyalties and the dangers women faced when trying to get the right to vote and equality.