Through the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their âcrimesâ? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story.
'Staggering⌠Wise's book bristles with injustices.' Sunday Telegraph, *****
By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed âdefectiveâ by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their âcrimesâ were various: women with children born out of wedlock; rebellious teenagers caught shoplifting; those with epilepsy, hearing impairments and chronic illnesses who had struggled in school; and many who were simply âdifferentâ.
Forcibly removed from their families and confined to a shadow world of specialist facilities in the countryside, they were hidden away and forgotten â out of sight, out of mind.
Through painstaking archival research, award-winning historian Sarah Wise shines a light on this shameful chapter. Piecing together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation, The Undesirables provides a compelling study of how early twentieth-century attitudes to class, gender and disability resulted in a nationwide scandal â and how they continue to shape social policy to this day.
'The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief⌠beautifully researched and truly compelling.' Catherine Bailey, author of Black Diamonds