Lottie Moggach and Louisa Treger

Louisa Treger 
A Fatal Love

Lottie Moggach
Mrs Pearcey

with Jo Durrant

Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain.  A Fatal Love is the gripping story of her life, imagined by Louisa Treger, as Ruth Ellis is awaiting trial for the murder of her lover.

Kitty Carrington, assistant to Ruth’s trial lawyer, is determined to ensure that Ruth receives a fair trial.  The two women must navigate secrets, betrayal and a broken justice system as they try to take control of their own lives.

‘Both thrilling and seductive, and yet so sensitively written … it will break many hearts. Brava! What an achievement.’ Essie Fox.

Louisa Treger has written four novels and contributes regularly to numerous publications. She is also deputy chair of the Oxford Literary Festival.

Camden, London, in 1890.  London is a city of gaslight, gossip and grisly headlines. Mrs Pearcey tells the story of Hannah, a young journalist engaged to be married, who becomes obsessed with her near-neighbour Mrs Pearcey, accused of a scandalous murder. Unbeknown to her journalist fiancé, Hannah begins to probe in secret, discovering details that the investigators have failed to spot, and realising that the woman bound for the gallows may not be as guilty as the press have branded her.

It’s also a brilliant portrait of tabloid journalism in Victorian London, exploring how the appetite for true crime was just as insatiable as our own today.

Lottie Moggach is a novelist and journalist whose fiction combines psychological tension with sharp social observation. She has written for The Times and Financial Times. Her mother Deborah Moggach came to Cuckfield Book Festival in 2023 and entertained us with her book The Little Black Dress.

Louisa and Lottie will be talking to Jo Durrant and discussing what drew them to writing about women accused of murder.