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

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A prolonged period at war combined with the agricultural and industrial revolutions were resulting in an anonymous, industrialised state where the demands of factory life created an urban poor. People were disaffected and disenfranchised. Manchester epitomised this fundamental change of life for the labouring classes. It had excellent transport links, a damp climate and local coal mines which created the ideal centre for the burgeoning cotton industry. However, conditions for workers were appalling. They were housed in slums and they saw wages slump in the recession following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. By 1819, in a city which exemplified the success of the Industrial Revolution, people were starving and there was not a single MP 2. The poor were seeking a voice The Song of Peterloo is the emotive story of Nancy Kaye, a passionate young mill worker desperate to learn to read and write. She is also desperate to keep her six-year-old son Walter away from the dangerous life of working in the mills; she wants to give him opportunities she has never had. With the stirrings of social reform, Nancy begins to feel hopeful of change and is inspired to get involved. 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. There is no denying the strong theme of family that runs throughout this story. Love and endurance are key in such times of struggle and Nancy represents a strong woman who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in. Nancy is a credible character and I was rooting for her and her son, Walter, at the very end. Indeed, the closing of the novel was the most poignant for me, offering love and hope for the future.

It is a story of beliefs, hope and courage. It brings alive the devastation and the various views of all.

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Watch a short video featuring performances of two of the ballads by folk trio Thrup’nny Bits and Dr Morgan discussing her research. Nancy is desperate to have a voice and others want a voice within parliament and better working conditions. 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. Dr Morgan added: “It’s still relevant today, when we see the ways in which political discourse is being changed and shaped, the ways in which people are protesting – this isn’t just about an event that happened 200 years ago, it’s about the continued fight for our democratic rights.” The music of life is seemingly silenced but out of the darkness that cloaks their funereal living and working conditions shines a beacon of hope embodied in the vitality and positivity of Nancy Kay. She emanates an ethereal glow that pulsates with a passion that gives belief to those around her that life will get better.

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. The Peterloo Massacre has been described as ‘Manchester’s Tiananmen Square’ and is regarded as one of the most significant moments in English political history.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.

Hunt took to the hustings at 2pm; twenty minutes later, eighteen were dead or dying and more than six hundred injured by the combined efforts of the the Fifteenth Hussars and Manchester and Salford Yeomanry Cavalry, with their recently-sharpened sabres. As you read this you find that the droid excellent and brings both the battle and its problems to life. 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. 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.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. 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.