David Floyd reviews local author Bridget Gardiner’s debut novel which explores a thought provoking episode in North London’s history

Book cover of Respectable People by Bridget Gardiner

Both historical novels based on true stories and ‘true crime’ are genres with significant followings but Bridget Gardiner’s debut successfully takes both of these in an unusual direction.

While Respectable People does ultimately centre on an incident that may or may not have been a crime, its focus is more on the workings of the criminal justice system in the late-1920s and its interaction with the attitudes and values of wider society.

This may not immediately seem like a compelling premise for a novel but its testament to Gardiner’s mix of narrative skill and plotting abilities that reader’s initial scepticism is likely to be overcome.

Respectable People is the story of a 22-year-old New Southgate factory worker, Irene Savidge, who is arrested for sexual misconduct in Hyde Park with a middle-aged former MP, Sir Leo Money.

It covers the trial and the subsequent inquiry into how the Metropolitan Police dealt with the incident. This series of events had profound implications for government ministers, including the then Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks and senior figures within the police and prosecuting authorities.

Over the course of the novel, Gardiner uses the incident as a prism through to view changing attitudes towards women both within the police force and the nation as a whole.

The novel’s key success is in covering the story convincingly and engagingly from a range of different angles. These include the perspectives of Irene and her family at home in North London: her protective parents and bewildered but ultimately supportive fiance; the police officers involved in both the initial case and the follow-up inquiry; and the politicians and top administrators trying to navigate their way through the implications of the case.

Most of the key characters are portrayed in enough detail to be at least partly sympathetic. Irene is clearly badly treated but is not solely a victim of the situation. She also, despite her limited power and relative lack of status, initially attempts to find ways to use her experiences to her advantage to pursue a career in showbusiness.

Police officers are guilty of both misguided attitudes and major errors but make at least some of their mistakes based on good intentions. Politicians and senior leaders, while driven (sometimes in the wrong direction) by ambition and sense of legacy also ultimately want to find ways to make things better within the constraints they operate under. In all cases, Gardiner makes the reader care enough about the characters to read on and find out how their part of the story ends.

The character whose motivations remain the least explained is Money. He appears only when interacting with other characters and never to tell his side of the story. It’s not clear whether this is primarily because he’s an obvious baddie and readers don’t need to know much more about him, or because there isn’t enough additional information to draw on.

Ultimately, though, Respectable People effectively shines a light on how much has changed for women, politicians and the police since the 1920s, while also reflecting multiple themes and arguments that recur today in slightly different ways.

It’s hugely successful in taking an interesting but relatively minor historical incident and turning it into a novel that is fast-paced and enjoyable but also significantly thought provoking.

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