Dearest Gentle Reader
A Bridgeton-Inspired Book Announcement
Dearest Gentle Reader,
This author comes to your inbox with some publishing news. Fear not, however - for I am no Lady Whistledown.
Following a year of development, a submission process and an auction between three parties over the last few months, Criminally Misunderstood: How Disability And The Justice System Collide will be published by Footnote, an imprint of Bonnier Books, in spring 2027.
To be made abnormal for what is outside of your own control marks much of the UK’s society - such as with the unlawful and/or inappropriate detention of Autistic people in hospital/psychiatric settings, a lack of access to the criminal justice system, and the deaths of learning disabled people documented in high profile inquests.
What this author knows to be true is that the ‘bon ton’ she herself is a part of - a self professed ‘watchdog for the underdog’ - has failed to understand the corrosive impact of instutionalised pathologisation. Failure to note the patterns, accurately inform the need for reform, call attention to the institutionalisation of ableism, means the same stories are written repeatedly.
Is it not time that the stories of the marginalised, those typically unseen and unbelonging, are finally told - from their own point of view? And that we take action?
Disabled people are almost exactly a quarter of the UK’s population; they are the largest marginalised group, and are ever-growing thanks to the bitter sting in the tail of Covid 19. The set up of care through family and relatives means disability is an issue that will touch the lives of us all.
5 years have passed since the first lockdown in the UK. How very little has changed, and the erosion of rights continues apace - including across the pond. This by proxy should concern us all.
Should you, dear reader, wish to be interviewed - this newsletter is all ears for experiences from the heart of the UK’s criminal justice system from disabled individuals. Comments can be left on this newsletter; you can also reply to this email. Or click the button below to email me via a contact form in confidence:
An ongoing series to be written during the writing of Criminally Misunderstood will be announced on this newsletter in due course. How you can support this newsletter to enable the work to continue will be contained in that dispatch also.
The work of anti-ableism warrants a necessary anger, as well as the input of allies across both sides of the aisle. Such work is an ongoing process - and that work begins now.