Feather Boas and Rave-Goers . Unveiling Illusion . Homo From Homo . A Stone in Her Shoe . Treading the Boards . Women of Brighton

A Stone in her Shoe

A year or so back we (as Ourstory Books) were approached by a Sussex author, Jo Burgess. She’d read our book, Just Take Your Frock Off, (Barbara Bell’s autobiography) and asked us to read the manuscript of a novel she’d written, loosely based on her own life. We thought it a good book, well-written and interesting – a compelling account of relationships between women in pre-liberation times.

We were delighted to hear this year that Jo has found a publisher and that the book, A Stone in her Shoe, is now available. She has very kindly donated some copies to us to sell and we are glad to offer them to you! If you would like a copy, please send £9.99 (includes p&p) to Brighton Ourstory Project, PO Box 2861, Brighton, BN1 1UN.

From the back cover

Corinna had always known that she was a boy, but that it was a difficult proposition to wear in the England of the 1930s. Despite her strength and resilience of character, even she falls in line with social expectations and marries a young airman as the Second World War begins. She joins up and the process of her liberation from conventional morality, so slow in development, begins to gather momentum. She meets and falls in love with the erudite and witty Stevie and her life seems to be complete. However, Corinna has not taken into account the beautiful and tempestuous Lisa, who attracts her like a moth to a flame and opens up new horizons which enable Corinna to fulfil her true nature to a depth she had not thought possible, forcing her to a decision she had never contemplated.

Some words from the author

A Stone in her Shoe intends to show the difficulties of being an outsider as seen by society at large, to show this experience as worth every minute of the fight by the individual to win, to make a success of life, to show it is worth all the loneliness and fear.

Jo Burgess