During the eighteen hundreds, no less than 220 different offences were punishable by death. British law decreed that anyone living with gypsies, for a period exceeding one calendar month or a child, aged between 7 and 14 who showed signs of malice and undue cruelty, would be put to death in the name of the current sovereign and to satisfy the machinations of the law.

Today, if it is remembered at all, we think of only the most notorious murderers encountering the hangman’s rope. Perhaps a small minority of the population would welcome a restoration of such an iniquitous and archaic practise and celebrate its return. Grace Thornton of Shepherd’s Bush, London W12 would not be amongst them!

Death by hanging was abolished in 1965. (Just in time to save the Moor’s Murderers!)

For Grace and her brother it was thirteen years too late.

Sheila M. Barnes lives in West Sussex but is a native of The Black Country. In this, her tenth novel, Sheila has written a powerful and moving account of one woman’s struggle to abolish the horrors of capitol punishment. A far cry from her own life where she has the pleasure of overlooking the English Channel and the beautiful South Downs.

Sheila has been engaged in stage and theatre work for many years both behind and in front of the footlights. In retirement she enjoys motoring, walking beside the sea and of course writing.