What Empty Things Are These

(Paperback)

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In 1860's Britain there is nothing unusual in a man beating his wife. When George Hadley's aggression triggers his own stroke and coma, his wife discovers all she thinks of as hers is to pass to her young son Toby. Adelaide seems as powerless as her ladies' maid, Sobriety. Beyond the strictures of domestic and social expectation, these two women of different class remake the rules to discover what lies beneath the drapes and tassels of Victorian Britain. Life, they find, is urgent, exciting... but cheap. Even as they adventure into alleyways, a tunnel and a s ance, their innocence is gone. What Empty things Are These is about what happens to women who look into the face of this newly industrialised and still patriarchal age. Change is everywhere, exhilarating, corrupt, terrifying. Fraud and farce abound. Spiritualists prey on the confused; women are encased in clothing that imply both modesty and sexuality; the powerful prey upon the weak. Adelaide and Sobriety, in their way, show us that every era has secrets that must be uncovered for real social progress. But the truth of the age is encapsulated for them, in the underlying tale of the vulnerable urchin girl, the nameless victim of this pitiless society.

Reviews

"What Empty Things Are These is an exquisite story of friendship across class, the realisation of self worth, and the delicate emergence of female solidarity in the face of society's disdain. Crozier has created a glorious Victorian London that creaks and groans and gasps in its smoky, damp darkness and stifling corsetry. A stunning debut and a triumph of imagination and historical voice." - Alison Goodman, NYT bestselling author of Eon, Eona and The Dark Days Club series. "Elegant, witty and sharply insightful, What Empty Things Are These is a mid-Victorian riff on the intellectual and actual freedom of women - one that cleverly begs the question of what has, and what hasn't, changed today." - Kim Kelly, author of the novels Black Diamonds, This Red Earth, The Blue Mile, Paper Daisies, Wild Chicory and Jewel Sea

Author Bio

JL (Judy) Crozier's early life was a sweep through war-torn South East Asia: Malaysia during the 'Emergency' and Burma with its battles between Karen hill tribes and the Burmese army, countries where Judy's father Laurie was a mining engineer; and Vietnam during the war of the 60s, where Laurie served as advisor on aid to the Australian embassy. For Judy, life veered from understandably exciting, to dull. She read her way through the whole of the British Council Library, picking up Thackeray and Dickins at the age of nine. Judy's older brothers, Ross and Brian, arrived once a year at Christmas from boarding school in Australia. Laurie continued his high-octane life, for the time being, but his wife Sheila and Judy returned home for school from 1964. Feeling becalmed, the adult Judy picked up journalism, local politics, blues singing, home renovation, child-rearing, community work, writing and creative writing teaching, proof reading and editing, and her Master of Creative Writing. JL (Judy) Crozier is the recipient of the following literary awards: 2013Varuna Publisher Fellowship (awarded by Varuna Writers' Centre, NSW, Australia). 2010Highly Commended in Sean O'Faolain awards, Ireland, for 'Sidetrack'. 2005Runner-up in Fish Publishing (Ireland) Historical Short Fiction Competition, for 'Dreamed a Dream'. 2005Best Non-North American entrant in Raymond Carver (US) Short Story Competition, for 'First the Chicken'. 2004Winner Angelo B Natoli Short Story Award, Fellowship of Australian Writers competition, for 'Dreamed a Dream'. 2003Winner Eastern Regional Libraries National Short Story Competition, for 'On Looking Through the Window'. 2002 Winner of The Great Australian Novel (pitching) competition, held by the Melbourne Writers' Festival - for novel based in 60s Vietnam. 2002 Shortlisted for Glen Eira Literary Competition, for 'Hero'. 1994 Winner Caulfield City Council Short Story Competition, for 'Shards'.