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Vera Wentworth makes a dramatic appearance in Chapter 5 of Barefoot on the Cobbles. Born Jessie Alice Spink, in 1890, Vera was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, the militant arm of the woman’s suffrage movement. She came from a middle-class family; her father was a London chemist. At the time she appears in the novel, although still in her teens, Vera had already spent several spells in Holloway Prison for her beliefs. She was based in the south west and together with Elsie Howey and Jessie Kenney, made the Prime Minister, a particular target. Her militancy was such that she alienated other members of the movement.

Her 1911 census entry shows that she attempted to avoid being enumerated but the entry was later ‘Inserted by instruction of the Registrar General’. After the incident that is narrated in the novel, Vera attended St Andrews University. She continued to campaign actively and went to America to aid the cause there. During the First World War, when the suffragettes agreed to suspend their activities, Vera is reported to have worked as a VAD nurse but she does not appear on the Red Cross database.

In 1939 Vera was living in Argyle Street, St Pancras with her life partner, Daisy Carden and Vera described herself as an authoress. She died in 1957.

‘Now Daisy had a better view of the women, she could see that the speaker was not much older than she was, perhaps still in her teens. Her nose was rather too prominent for her to be considered a beauty but her straight dark brows and striking eyes drew attention.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.