{"id":106750,"date":"2025-02-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?post_type=product&#038;p=106750"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:47:26","slug":"james-and-john","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992","title":{"rendered":"James and John"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*<\/b><br \/><b>&#8216;Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. A raw, unexpected portrait of Britain&#8217;s grandeur, wealth, energy, cruelty and hypocrisy in the age of liberalism&#8217;<\/b> RORY STEWART<br \/><b>&#8216;A shocking story of prejudice and injustice, told in meticulous detail&#8217; <\/b>KEIR STARMER<\/p>\n<p><b>Newgate Prison, 1835. <\/b><b>James Pratt and John Smith. <\/b>Both were convicted of homosexuality &#8211; &#8216;an unnatural offence&#8217;. Both would be hanged at the gallows. And yet the 1830s was a time of great reform, when capital punishment was in decline. Of the jailed men alongside them, why were James and John alone not spared?<\/p>\n<p>Labour MP and bestselling author Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history &#8211; but whose story has been lost, until now.<\/p>\n<p><b>&#8216;An eye-opening portrait of Victorian injustice and hypocrisy&#8217; <i>The Times<\/i><\/b><br \/><b>&#8216;With its courtroom denouement and Dickensian setting, TV commissioners should take note&#8217; <i>New Statesman<\/i><\/b><br \/> <b>&#8216;An intricately detailed portrait of Regency England, roving from Newgate and the Old Bailey to servants&#8217; quarters&#8217; <i>Financial Times<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><b>This &#8216;staggering&#8217; (<i>TLS<\/i>), &#8216;must-read&#8217; (Keir Starmer) book from the Labour minister and <i>Sunday TImes <\/i>bestselling author Chris Bryant resurrects the lives of the last two men who were hanged in England for being gay.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[142],"product_tag":[290,349],"class_list":["post-106750","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-general-non-fiction","product_tag-history","product_tag-social-cultural-history","pa_book_author-bryant-christopher","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-364-660922-edition23","pa_imprint-bloomsbury","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8500","pa_publisher-bloomsbury","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>James and John<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*&#039;Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. A raw, unexpected portrait of Britain&#039;s grandeur, wealth, energy, cruelty and hypocrisy in the age of liberalism&#039; RORY STEWART&#039;A shocking story of prejudice and injustice, told in meticulous detail&#039; KEIR STARMERNewgate Prison, 1835. James Pratt and John Smith. Both were convicted of homosexuality - &#039;an unnatural offence&#039;. Both would be hanged at the gallows. And yet the 1830s was a time of great reform, when capital punishment was in decline. Of the jailed men alongside them, why were James and John alone not spared?Labour MP and bestselling author Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history - but whose story has been lost, until now.&#039;An eye-opening portrait of Victorian injustice and hypocrisy&#039; The Times&#039;With its courtroom denouement and Dickensian setting, TV commissioners should take note&#039; New Statesman &#039;An intricately detailed portrait of Regency England, roving from Newgate and the Old Bailey to servants&#039; quarters&#039; Financial Times\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James and John\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*&#039;Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. 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Of the jailed men alongside them, why were James and John alone not spared?Labour MP and bestselling author Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history - but whose story has been lost, until now.&#039;An eye-opening portrait of Victorian injustice and hypocrisy&#039; The Times&#039;With its courtroom denouement and Dickensian setting, TV commissioners should take note&#039; New Statesman &#039;An intricately detailed portrait of Regency England, roving from Newgate and the Old Bailey to servants&#039; quarters&#039; Financial Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archway Bookshop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-23T14:47:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-logo_512-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Archwaybookshop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/\",\"name\":\"James and John\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-13T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-23T14:47:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*'Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. 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Of the jailed men alongside them, why were James and John alone not spared?Labour MP and bestselling author Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history - but whose story has been lost, until now.'An eye-opening portrait of Victorian injustice and hypocrisy' The Times'With its courtroom denouement and Dickensian setting, TV commissioners should take note' New Statesman 'An intricately detailed portrait of Regency England, roving from Newgate and the Old Bailey to servants' quarters' Financial Times\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781526644992\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buy Books\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/buy-books\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"History\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/product-category\/history\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"James and John\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Archway Bookshop\",\"description\":\"Axminster&#039;s Beautiful Bookshop\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Archway Bookshop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png\",\"width\":454,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"Archway Bookshop\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Archwaybookshop\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/archwaybookshop\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"James and John","description":"*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*'Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. 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