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Welcome to our Reading Group guide for Scapegallows by Carol Birch. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

What Carol Birch has said about Scapegallows: ‘Sifting fact from fiction has not always been easy, but it’s clear she made a huge impression on those who knew her. What’s definitely true is that she was born into a farming family near Ipswich and went into service at the age of 14. Sometime during her teens she became heavily involved with the smugglers who fought a constant war with the excise men all along the Suffolk coast. In 1797 she stole a horse from the Cobbolds, a wealthy brewing family for whom she had worked as nursemaid for several years, and rode 70 miles in 10 hours from Ipswich to London, dressed as a man. For this she was condemned to hang, but the sentence was commuted to 7 years imprisonment after the Cobbolds pleaded for her life. In 1800, she escaped from Ipswich Gaol and went on the run with her long-time lover, the smuggler Will Laud. The two of them were apprehended a few days later trying to escape by rowing boat from England. Margaret was dressed as a sailor. There was a struggle, Will Laud was shot dead and Margaret was arrested and condemned to hang a second time. The Cobbolds’ influence once more saved her life, and this time the sentence was commuted to transportation to Australia for life, where Margaret eventually became a respected midwife, shopkeeper and farm overseer. There was a book written by the Reverend Richard Cobbold but he made of her life a Victorian morality tale. I felt compelled to create a character that may be some way closer to the woman who lived as she did and wrote passionate letters back from Australia. She faced death several times in her life and she lived in dangerous times, in an age that allowed a strong woman of her class and position no outlet for her sort of independence. She fell foul of a most savage judicial system, that of eighteenth century England during the Age of Enlightenment. While great intellectual and scientific strides were being made, the mob flocked to see people hanged for such crimes as stealing a handkerchief. Margaret Catchpole was a product of these times, a fascinating forgotten woman of history, and I felt it was time she was given a fairer testament. ‘

  1. ‘There she hung, a black chrysalis in the centre, until the rope burned through and she dropped.’ What makes the hanging scene so shocking? The description of the woman being hanged and burned or the fact that the scene is being watched by a six year old child?
  2. ‘ “That’s what Mr. Ripshaw told me,” I said, “but I don’t understand. Everyone knows I’m guilty. I owned up to everything as soon as they caught me.” ’ Does Margaret ever question the workings of ‘justice’ or does she just accept them? A modern woman might question 18th century laws but how far would she be expected to question laws in the 20th century. Do you think Margaret is particularly fatalistic or is she simply a woman of her time?
  3. The story is told from Margaret’s point of view. Are there any parts of the story where you think that if one of the other characters was telling us their version events the story would be different? How do you think Will Laud sees Margaret? Are there any points in the story where you wonder whether he loves her as much as she loves him?
  4. On the acknowledgements page Carol Birch thanks Richard Cobbold for his 1845 book, Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk Girl. According to Birch his story is a ‘Victorian morality tale about a good and simple girl led astray by a bad man and eventually redeemed about marriage, motherhood and religion.’ Do you think it is possible to write a book without some kind of moral message? Do you think that this is what Carol Birch is trying to do? In two hundred years time, what do you think readers will think that this book is a typical example of a 20th century morality tale?
  5. Why do you think Birch choose to write this book as a novel, rather than as a biography?
  6. Margaret’s ‘good character’ is mentioned few times in the novel. It stands Margaret in good stead. Do you think Margaret’s character changes, or is it set from the beginning of the story?
  7. John Luft is a fascinating, sinister character. The relationship he has with Margaret is never fully explained. How would you explain the nature of their relationship?

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