Deborah Siddoway

Lover of books, avid reader, Dickens enthusiast, wine drinker, knitter, writer, lover of all things Victorian, Northerner, divorced.

The Story of Divorce

My current work in progress: Exploring the stories of the bigamists and bastards, feminists and fornicators that gave us the law of divorce as it exists today.

Latest from the Blog

Reading the Letters of Mary Shelley – Brief Thoughts on the Second 1899 Volume

The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Volume II by Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyMy rating: 5 of 5 starsOffering a fascinating insight into the mind of Mary Shelley, with curated extracts of her journal accompanying some of her correspondence to some of her friends and colleagues. This is a reprint of the two volume 1899…

The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob Kerr

The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob KerrMy rating: 4 of 5 stars This book was something of a slow burn for me. A sense of uneasiness pervades the whole of the novel, with the nomadic lifestyle of the family suggesting that something is not quite right, and that unsettling eerie atmosphere carries over…

The Podcast Series: The Story of Divorce

A Vile and Incestuous Intercourse The Story of Divorce

The story of Louisa Turton's marriage, and the circumstances which led to her petitioning Parliament for a divorce, becoming the second woman to be successful in her petition for a Parliamentary divorce.
  1. A Vile and Incestuous Intercourse
  2. Guilty of so Atrocious a Crime
  3. Without Shame or Modesty
  4. An Impudent, Infamous, and Lascivious Way
  5. The Curious Case of Adulterine Bastardy

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