Common Cause

Its 1915 and Britain is at war as Kate Hunters sequel to The Caseroom - shortlisted for the 2017 Saltire First Book Award - opens on the next stage in the lives of Iza Orr, skilled compositor, and the workers in Edinburghs print industry. At a time of momentous events, we step alongside Iza as she copes with unexpected complexities of patriotism, womens suffrage, worker victimisation and a historic wartime lockout. `It seems the country needs starched cloth-lappers and lunatic asylum attendants, but it does not need books, does not need learning and intellectual stimulation. Printers are denied reserved occupation status but, with bankruptcies looming, the jobs of Edinburghs dwindling number of female hand typesetters are on the line. Riven by challenges both political and personal, Iza must weather conflicting calls for loyalty to nation, to class, to gender, to family her marriage to troubled John, her children, her estranged daughter Mary, now a grown woman to discover her true common cause.