I just couldn’t get into this novel. I found the characters very stereotypical and didn’t capture my imagination. On this occasion I couldn’t finish the novel

I found this story utterly charming. I found the suffragette aspect so interesting and the story to be really rooted in its time, I loved the rich characters, history and humour so true to my own. Would definitely recommend to family and friends.

Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

It is 1928 and Matilda Simpkin finds a small wooden club in a cupboard and with it comes a stream of memories that carry her back to the early years of the century when Mattie fought alongside her comrades for the suffrage of women. Matilda’s past is extraordinary – her deep-rooted unease around the police is easily explained by the abuse she witnessed and suffered at their hands as a suffragette. She keeps the medals which commemorate each protest, each imprisonment, each force feeding. But the fight was in the past. Mattie is lost and she is without purpose. But when she meets by chance a fellow suffragette she discovers that her old friend has been caught up in the flame of the growing movement of fascism. Suddenly Mattie discovers a new battle to fight – the need to educate girls and women of all ages and classes so that they can vote with awareness and knowledge. So that fascism will be defeated.

We first met Mattie in Crooked Heart, an exquisitely warm novel that took us to the last days of Mattie’s life during the Second World War, a life that helped to shape that novel’s young hero Noel. In that novel, Mattie played a relatively minor role but it was an unforgettable one. How good it is that now, several years later, we can enjoy Mattie’s company again, this time during her middle years when yet again her theories about education, the establishment and individual responsibility will have such an impact on the young people around her.

As Mattie sets up her band of Amazons (young women from all walks of life) on Hampstead Heath, in direct opposition to a fascist organisation of marching uniformed boys and girls, we become caught up in the hopes and aspirations of another generation of women. Women who, thanks to Mattie and others like her, will be able to have the vote, will be able to have dreams and possibly even fulfil them. We are introduced to a number of such memorable girls and women who are all inspired by Mattie. We pop into their lives and they are all so different and so utterly enchanting.

I fell in love with so many people in Old Baggage, not least of whom is Mattie herself. Lissa Evans writes so beautifully and takes us deep into Mattie’s thoughts and worries, her passions and her love, her self-doubt, and, most poignantly of all, the great losses she suffered during the First World War. The war ended ten years before but its legacy scars those who survived it. None of this is laboured – Lissa Evans presents it all with such skill and empathy, everything blended perfectly into the whole. The result is Matilda Simpkin, a woman who deserves and wins our love, for her heroism and her flaws. She is remarkable.

There are others I fell for here as well. Mattie’s companion Florrie (known as The Flea) is so beautifully and delicately drawn – she continues to carry out work for the poor, selflessly and at great personal cost. There are others we meet just briefly but their impressions last much longer. I loved poor Aileen especially. But the tragedy and sadness works so effectively because it is often masked by wit and humour, warmth and care.

Old Baggage is one of those fabulous books that reaches the heart, that makes the reader laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page. Writing this beautiful doesn’t come along every day and I cherished it. I can only hope that we meet Mattie once again, perhaps going even further back in time to those Suffragette years. There’s so much I want Mattie to tell us about her life! But if this is goodbye, I’ll not forget Matilda Simpkin.

Old Baggage is a timely commemoration of the bravery and sacrifice of suffragettes and suffragists but it also takes a look at what happened next, once these extraordinary women were reabsorbed into society during the aftermath of the First World War. It presents a beautiful portrait of Mattie, Florrie and their comrades while also celebrating the role of women as a whole, for whom there was and still is so much to do.

Other review
Crooked Heart

I really enjoyed this tale of two ex-suffragettes and what happened when that first battle for the vote was won and everyone had to get back to normal life.

I've reviewed it on my blog, link below. Highly recommended.

The book is truly something else.

The tagline is ‘What do you do next, after you’ve changed the world?’ Mattie Simpkin was already known to us from Lissa’s Crooked Heart: this is a prequel, starting in 1928, telling her story in detail, and including fascinating details of the suffragettes’ earlier struggles. Mattie is well-educated, well-off, still very political. She owns her own house on the edge of Hampstead Heath, once a refuge for suffragettes under threat from the law, and lives there with an old friend known as the Flea. She has ideas, and energy, and a desire to do good in the world. Unlike her old companions from the political days, she never says ‘the best is past, the past is best’ or wishes she were back there – it is the women who married and had children who say that. She is eccentric and unconventional, and she lives on the page like someone you knew in a former life: she must be one of the most real and convincing characters I have ever read about, she is unforgettable, and fabulous.



Mattie starts a girls’ group to meet on the Heath each week, the Amazons: they will do activities, and learn things, and work together as a team. One young woman in particular, Ida, takes Mattie’s attention: she comes from a very deprived background but has huge potential. Then there is Inez, the daughter of a now-dead suffragette friend. And there is another group of young people also operating locally: very much in the fascist mould, with marching and drill and discipline – everything Mattie doesn’t believe in.





No-one could predict the twists and turns the plot takes, and how the different issues and relationships are played out: completely original and unlike any book I have ever read. And at the end, after you have laughed and wept at the story, you find out how Mattie ends up with Noel, the little boy who features in Crooked Heart.

This is truly an exceptional book, and I sincerely hope it will win some awards.

I can remember when I first read Lissa’s Finest Hour and a Half I thought ‘I’ve never really known what kind of book I want to read, that’s why I read them all, but now I’ve found the kind of book I want to read.’ And all her books have been like that.

I am a huge fan of the writer Ford Madox Ford (much featured on the blog), because he had a human understanding that leaves me in awe, and Lissa’s books are like that too, only, thank goodness, on the whole not as miserable. When I read these writers, I think ‘Yes, that’s what people are like, not how they are in other books.' As Virginia Woolf said, books for grown-ups.

There is an extraordinary scene with an old friend who has become an alcoholic, one of the most authentic descriptions I have read of dealing with that.

And I could see how much I would’ve loved the Girls’ Club – I would have been pretending to be cool and rolling my eyes, but actually would have loved it SO MUCH, I just really wanted to join. My later-alcoholic friend would’ve been saying ‘we so can’t do that, let’s go somewhere where there’s boys’. And I would’ve pretended that’s how I felt too – ‘Right, lame’ – but would have been a secret conformer… How can a book make you know what hypothetical conversation you would have had 40 years ago?

There are wonderful lines throughout the book:
Bessie worked on the manicure counter at Bourne and Hollingsworth and had won the recent Amazons’ wood-chopping competition without breaking a nail.
Miss Simpkin… had a face as readable as a penny newspaper, enthusiasm and exasperation, encouragement and the odd gust of rage chasing across her features.

Her only thought had been that Mary was welcome to him, more fool her and her tatty green boa, but now she felt a sudden yearning for a plush seat and a bag of toffees and an arm around her in the dark.

[At Mrs Pankhurst’s funeral, attended by her old companions] St John’s Smith Square currently contained more convicted criminals than an East End beer-hall.

His face had the flour-and-water plainness of a child in a Breugel painting.
[Mattie] sat in the drawing room in a state of ghastly impotence, unable, in her usual manner, to stride away from introspection; stewing in it, in fact, like a dumpling in mutton soup. [This sentence is followed by a surpassingly wonderful passage about her thoughts: I would love to quote it in full, but it would be a spoiler. But it is a tour de force.]




I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is wonderful.

A more unusual angle from which to approach the topic of the suffragettes and one which worked. The historical facts were introduced under cover of an emotional daily setting. I think I would have found myself wilting when confronted by the sometimes overbearing main character - certainly I felt a great sympathy for her companion! Yet this was written in such a way as to make me feel great empathy for Mattie. This was a very enjoyable read and is definitely for those who enjoy novels rooted in historical fact.

As we mark one hundred years since women were given the ability to vote, this novel seems particularly pertinent.

When Mattie Simpkin is mugged she inadvertently finds herself in a spot of bother.

Known to the police through her involvement of the women’s suffrage campaign, they are quick to come knocking on her door after an accidental incident leaves a young woman injured at Mattie’s hands.

Mattie is quick to explain that she was actually being mugged and threw something in order to try and stop the culprit. Her throw just slightly off. The police are disbelieving, wondering why she hadn’t reported the crime to them.

Mattie is quick to point out that her relationship with them in the past hasn’t exactly been the best.

No matter, to cut a long story short, Mattie is given a new purpose in life when she tracks down the poor unfortunate girl whom she injured on that fateful day.

Ida Pearse is quickly taken under her and her house mate Florrie Lee’s (also known as the Flea) wing.

This is a beautifully written novel that touches upon sexuality, political reform and the difficulties of young women growing up in the late 1929s. Yet another brilliant novel from Lissa Evans.

Hadn’t read anything by Lissa Evans before but this book follows the character of Mattie Simpkins who was briefly introduced to us in her previous novel Crooked Heart.
Mattie was once a suffragette, jailed numerous times and this book catches up with her some years later still believing and fighting for the cause. One day she has the idea after meeting up with an old friend of setting up a girls club to educate and inspire young girls in readiness of them being able soon to vote. The story concentrates on this small group and its rival club (set up by the old friend she had met) who both meet on the Heath. The book follows Mattie, her companion ‘The Flea’ and Ida, my favourite character, a girl Mattie meets ‘by accident!’ and who later joins the club.
It’s a book that enables you to get straight into the story and has a lovely flowing writing style that passes seamlessly in and out of the current Mattie and her past experiences with the suffragette movement.
A great snapshot of a time and place and with wonderful humour and array of likeable characters.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There are a lot of things I'd say about this book.
First thing first: it's a wonderful story with great characters, a story that kept me hooked since the beginning and touched a lot of emotional chords. It can cause laughter, tears and awe of the suffragette and their fight.
The style of writing is impressive and somehow it reminds me of Nancy Mitford: sophisticated and easy to read at the same time.
I loved the well researched historical background and the Amazon girl group reminded me of my youth as a girl guide.
Highly recommended this book.
Many thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for this ARC

Wonderful exploration of 'what suffragettes did next' combined with a comedic and touching glimpse at developing feminism and women's rights.

I've read several of Evans novels for children and adults, and love her breezy, flowing style. All are very easy to fall into, with excellent comic touches and well-defined characters. Here, in a similar vein to 'Their Finest Hour and a Half' we have a bittersweet and funny look at a particular point in modern history, from the female perspective.

The 'Old Baggage' of the title could refer to the former Suffragette, now an older ladie providing educational talks about her experiences for interested audiences, Mattie. Living with The Flea (Florrie Lea), the two intellectuals reminisce, while The Flea keeps Mattie on track, and Mattie searches for something to get her teeth into, with her glory days far behind her. A chance meeting with a young, bright girl with few prospects gives her the idea of starting a club for girls to improve their minds, bodies and outlooks.

A most enjoyable concept, and executed with great detail - from the names, clothes and speech, descriptions of everyday lives, it really felt like the inter-war years.

There is a whole array of characters to root for, from the gentle Flea to some rowdy girls in the club, to the 'bull in a china shop' Mattie herself. I have read Crooked Heart, in which Mattie appears briefly, but she didn't make much of an impression on me, it's only through reading reviews that I recalled I'd read her name before. I won't be forgetting her again after this! A superb creation, I loved her ability to educate her girls about any subject that happened to come up.

We even have a bit of an anti-hero, a rivalry, and moral dilemmas for Mattie to contend with, with echoes of future Fascist ideologies.

My favourite scenes were those with the girls club, some very 'Bunty' activities, but it all seemed so much fun I wished I was joining them.

The last chapter I felt tried a little too hard to wrap things up neatly, but also left a sad scent of longing. I wonder if we'll hear more from Mattie in the future...

As with 'Their Finest Hour...', this could make a wonderful 'Great British' film, the elements - script, characters and highly relevant setting (with anniversaries currently being commemorated) are all high quality.

If you enjoy social history, stories of feminism or gentle comedy/drama, this will be your cup of English tea.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance e-copy.

I liked this so much that it's my Book of the Week on my blog this week. I really liked Lissa Evans' last book, Crooked Heart, and this is set more than a decade earlier and features Mattie, who we met in flashback in Crooked Heart. in 1928 Mattie is a feisty former suffragette looking for a new purpose (or fight to take on really!) now that women have the vote and the franchise is about to be expanded to give them the vote on the same terms as men. I absolutely raced through this - and really want to get my hands on a physical copy so that I can lend it to my mum and sister who really liked Crooked Heart and I know will really like this too.

Miss Matilda Simpkins, unmarried woman of a certain age is an educated former suffragette who prides herself on her ability to point out to others where they are going wrong with their lives. It's hard to try and recreate the busy glory days when, along with many others, they had a common goal and a fight on their hands. What Mattie needs is to occupy her time with a cause ...

Set in the 1920's, this is such an engaging and stimulating read. I thought the protagonist reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't put my finger on it, until she fastened her cloak. Margaret Rutherford played Jane Marple in the black and white Agatha Christie films (before my time, but I've seen them watching tv on a wet Sunday afternoon) with the same gung-ho attitude that Mattie displays. Being an exponent of fresh air and exercise, it's not long before she comes up with something to offer the community. Will it be the making of her or her downfall?

This is such a good read; with so many books set at the time of women's suffrage in this, the centenary year, it's a delight to read one which shows life after their aims were achieved. Choc-a-bloc with information - some of which I was previously unaware of - this is a story told with good humour and honesty. Adroitly written with a wonderful array of characters, I find myself unsurprised to discover that this author has been nominated for quite a list of literary prizes. Lissa Evans is a new author to me, but I hope to read more of her work in the future. Such a terrific novel deserves no less that the maximum number of stars and a hearty endorsement.

My thanks to publishers Random House UK for approving my request via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

It's 1928. Matilda Simpkin, rooting through a cupboard, comes across an old wooden club - an old possession of hers, unseen for more than a decade.

Mattie (Matilda) was a militant during the Women's Suffrage Campaign. She has given speeches, marched, smashed windows, she's even heckled Winston Churchill. You name it and Mattie has probably done it. She's even been jailed five times. Twirling the wooden club, she has an idea, but is it a good one?

Mattie feels she has no purpose in life. She's now middle aged and feels she is seen by others as old baggage. When Mattie meets an old suffragette friend who is now a facist, Mattie decides to take on a new challenge. Although this story can be a bit slow in oaerts, it can also be engaging and funny in others. It is quite informative on the facts about the suffragettes lives. You can't help but like Mattie, a wonderful character. She makes mistakes but is not afraid to fight for what she believes in.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishing and the author Lissa Evans for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this rather old-fashioned and heart-warming novel. The main characters were well and sympathetically drawn. I found the book a little slow-going at times, but on the whole it was a good read!

I understand that Mattie appears in another novel, so I shall seek it out and read it.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for my honest review.

On the centenary of the first women getting the vote, it is quite fitting to read this book about the life of a suffragette and what happened once the aim of equal franchise was won. Well written and suited to the period in which the story is set, I enjoyed the story and it's likeable lead character.
Given the current interest in the subject matter, the publication is timely, and will hopefully prompt further research into the subject by interested readers.
Enjoyable and relevant even today with it's themes of women's rights and equality, it is always worth remembering what previous generations went through.

I haven't read may books set in the 1920's and this is not a book I would normally pick up, but I really enjoyed this beautifully, properly and accurately written book. The protagonist is suffragette Matilda Simpkin who wanted rights for women and girls. I found it educational, quite funny and witty, and just nice.

I was sent a copy of Old Baggage by Lissa Evans to read and review by NetGalley.
I loved this book! It was beautifully written with proper use of the English language, as I remember being taught as a child - many moons ago! It is a tale primarily of middle aged former suffragette Matilda Simpkin who is still striving for change, wanting to make a difference to the lives and futures of women and girls alike. The novel is witty and heart-warming with well rounded characters of all classes with plenty of historical anecdotes of women’s suffrage, which is never laborious or dry. The author creates a real sense of time and place and somehow manages to get across the feelings of those concerned without affectation. A thoroughly enjoyable read – I’m actually quite sad I’ve finished it and will certainly search out Lissa Evans’ other titles, especially Their Finest which I really enjoyed as a film adaptation.

Mattie Simpson has appeared in a previous novel, “Crooked Heart,” and I was delighted to meet up with her again. It is 1928 and Mattie is living in Hampstead Heath with Florrie Lee, ‘the Flea.’ Both were heavily involved in the suffragette movement and Mattie still gives talks about women’s rights.

The story begins when Mattie, striding across the Heath, has her bag stolen. Attempting to stop the thief, she accidentally hurts young Ida Pearse, who later threatens to press charges, due to loss of work. Flo manages to smooth things over and offers Ida work in their house – especially as she has had more than enough of their daily, Mrs Bowling.

Women may have won the vote, but there is no doubt that they are still suffering from a lack of equality. Mrs Bowling seems to think it is hardly worth her time to ‘do’ for two spinsters, but Mattie fears that the next generation lack political insight. She is, initially, pleased to come across and old comrade, Jacqueline Fletcher. However, when it becomes clear that Jacqueline is involved with fascism, and wants to recruit Mattie for the cause, Flo leaves abruptly. Despite the fact that neither woman are entranced by European fascism. Mattie is stung by criticism that she does little more than dabble and throws herself into the Hampstead Heath Girl’s Club. However, it soon becomes clear that others are also keen to influence young minds…

This is a clever, thought provoking novel. I enjoyed reading about the indomitable Mattie and it did make you think about what the suffragettes (and indeed, suffragists) did once the vote had been won. A nice novel to celebrate the 1918 centenary and full of great characters. I received a copy of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

This book grabbed my attention from the synopsis and it didn’t disappoint. I fell into the pages where I could smell, taste, touch and see all the author was describing. The plot was interesting and enjoyable. The characters were all as I would imagine and true to the time th book was set in. Towards the end I got a bit lost with the story jumping ahead time wise but I soon caught up with it. It was a lovely and pleasurable read. I would recommend this to friends. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity of reading this book.

I thought this subject matter was quite relavent considering the heightened interest in the suffergettes of late. Mattie is a forward thinking, intelligent woman with a sharp wit but surprisingly little tack or insight. I didn't warm to her and felt the narrative rather disjointed and hard to follow. However, for its thought provoking historical content, it is worth a look.