The Sewing Factory Girls

Posy Lovell

INSPIRED by the brave, hardworking women who fought to improve working conditions at the Singer Sewing Machines Factory in Clydebank, saga writer Posy Lovell brings us a moving story of female strength and resilience.

In 1911, 10,000 workers at the Scottish factory went on strike in solidarity with twelve female colleagues protesting against a larger workload and no increase in pay, and it is these real-life events that Lovell (pseudonym for Kerry Barrett, author of several historical fiction novels) uses as the backdrop to The Sewing Factory Girls.

Like half of all the young women living in the Scottish town Clydebank in early 1911, Ellen works at the sewing machine factory. So does her big sister, Bridget, Bridget's fiancé Malcolm, and her new friend Sadie, who has come to work at the factory after the death of her father.

For Sadie, the factory is a way to make ends meet, but Ellen has sewing in her veins. She is even making Bridget’s wedding dress on her beloved sewing machine. 

But after the excitement of the wedding dies down, everything changes. Ellen discovers that the work of the cabinet polishers – her job – is to be reorganised and they will be doing more work for less pay. Ellen feels betrayed because the sewing factory is her family and they have let her down.

Sadie is more pragmatic but the women aren’t going to give in without a fight. They have been reading about strikes and they’ve got an idea... much to the disgust of manager Malcolm. Meanwhile, Bridget, forced to choose between her husband and her sister, has made a new friend and is fighting her own battle alongside the suffragettes. The events of the strike will throw Ellen, Bridget and Sadie’s lives into turmoil but also bring these women closer to each other than they could ever have imagined.

Lovell’s (pictured above) cast of feisty workers lie at the heart of this revealing and uplifting story about the power of female friendship and the courageous stand of a group of women forced to take action over the inequity of their treatment by the factory bosses. Rich in drama and authentic detail, The Sewing Factory Girls is the perfect stitching together of real history and compelling fiction.
(Orion, paperback, £9.99)