{"id":33774,"date":"2025-09-09T13:21:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33774"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:21:29","slug":"ethel-carnie-holdsworths-this-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/09\/09\/ethel-carnie-holdsworths-this-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethel Carnie Holdsworth\u2019s This Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nAdapted by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard<\/strong>, edited by David Hine<\/strong> (SelfMadeHero)
\nISBN: 978-1-91422-435-5 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect. <\/em><\/p>\n

Published in 1925, and set in the cotton town of Great Harwood, near Blackburn at the Edwardian height of the Lancashire weaving industry, the prose This Slavery <\/strong>explored the ironclad imbalances of the feudal class structure the industry depended upon and did it in terms of a then-fashionable romance novel. It was dismissed in many quarters because of it. Its author Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (January 1st<\/sup> 1886 – December 28th<\/sup> 1962) was a poet, journalist, editor, educator, children\u2019s author and novelist (with at least 10 books released in her lifetime, and whose fashionable gothic romances briefly outsold works by H.G. Wells!) and the first working class woman in Britain to have a book published – Miss Nobody<\/strong> in 1913.<\/p>\n

Working class and self-made, she escaped the drudgery of her birth to become a socialist intellectual, foe of fascism, successful author and ardent campaigner. However, she was gradually and in her own lifetime erased from history and public consciousness – perhaps because this daring experiment was intended to reach beyond the intelligentsia on both sides of the cultural battlegrounds. Maybe – just perhaps \u2013 it happened because this story recognised that even though all workers were equal, female ones were supposed to be less equal than all the rest, before then challenging that apparently sacrosanct sacred cow and credo…<\/p>\n

Divided into two Books<\/em>, this saga is sparked by the aftermath of a fire at Barstock\u2019s mill. This triggers another cycle of unemployment, privation and deaths for the weakest. Workers are paid a pittance and toil at the owners\u2019 discretion with no salaried protections. Even skilled workers lives depend on the pennies weaving factories dole out whenever the owners need them to, and unemployment is common and frequent. Now, with their only livelihood destroyed with no sign of reopening, many men are leaving for more favourable climes. Of course, their wives and sweethearts must remain…<\/p>\n

Hester<\/em> and Rachel Martin<\/em> live with their mother and grandmother, one a fierce and ferocious firebrand advocate of political and social change for all and the other a fair-faced, gifted musician in search of peace and security. Life for them is scrounging and performing for pennies or else perpetually borrowing to make do. When their granny dies, they don\u2019t even have the money to bury her…<\/p>\n

As their friends and lovers leave, existence becomes ever more onerous, and each achieves a shocking revelation regarding a woman\u2019s place in the grand schemes, Thus each chooses a difficult way to survive…<\/p>\n

The manner in which each \u201cgets by\u201d is moodily realised in grittily oppressive episodes beginning with \u2018Chapter One: The Proposal\u2019<\/em> and inexorably unfolding in a tapestry of tragedy comprising \u2018The Denial\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Exile\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Struggle\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Secret\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Inevitable\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Undesirables\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Last Snap\u2019<\/em> and \u2018The Commitment\u2019<\/em> all confirming that the war for freedom and equality is a three way battle: rich vs poor vs women…<\/p>\n

As Hester and Rachel each make life-changing decisions, the illustration embraces and resonates with powerful natural forces of nature and darkness opposed to crushing streets, oppressive architecture and shining gleaming inescapable artificial light that emotionally ground down the workers – employed or otherwise. Moreover, as Book Two sees the situation escalate into inevitable mass violence, readers are not allowed to forget that police, \u201cscab\u201d workers, and the military always have paid work to do…\"\"
\nAs the drama leads to an inevitable conclusion each sister rediscovers her true nature via \u2018Chapter Ten: The Negotiations\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Strike\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Lost Opportunity\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Innocents\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Beasts of the Jungle\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Revelations\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Rebellion\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Decision\u2019<\/em> and momentous moment \u2018The Last Battle\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Like any inspirational tale espousing change, there is the hint of happy endings and brighter futures for all depicted in an \u2018Epilogue\u2019 <\/em>with the entire story reinforced by a candid and thoughtful Afterword <\/em>from adaptors Sophie & Scarlett Rickard (Mann\u2019s Best Friend<\/strong>, A Blow Borne Quietly<\/strong>, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists<\/strong>, No Surrender<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Righteously strident, passionately polemical and powerfully enraging, engaging, this never-more-timely tale of the eternal injustice and biologically apologist is superbly readable, dramatically enticing and should be compulsory viewing for all – as long as we don\u2019t force anyone \u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 SelfMadeHero. Text \u00a9 2025 Sophie Rickard. Artwork \u00a9 2025 Scarlett Rickard. All rights reserved.
\nEthel Carnie Holdsworth\u2019s This Slavery<\/strong> will be published on September 11th <\/sup>2025 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n

Today <\/strong>in 1917, cartoonist\/writer Frank Robbins was born. Among his many, many masterworks this character<\/a><\/strong> stands at the forefront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adapted by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard, edited by David Hine (SelfMadeHero) ISBN: 978-1-91422-435-5 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. Published in 1925, and set in the cotton town of Great Harwood, near Blackburn at the Edwardian height of the Lancashire weaving industry, the prose This Slavery explored the ironclad imbalances of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ethel Carnie Holdsworth\u2019s This Slavery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335,80,42,299,122,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-adaptations","category-best-of-british","category-feminism-sexual-politics","category-historical","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8MK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33779,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33774\/revisions\/33779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}