This is a fictionalised account of the Codrington divorce of 1864, a scandalous divorce that gripped England at the time as it was reported in all of the newspapers. It follows the story of Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull, a spinster and women's rights activist, who was a close friend to Helen Codrington, the woman accused of adultery by her husband, and sued for divorce in a spectacularly public fashion.

Divorce in the Victorian era was most certainly not as easy as it is today. It was only possible upon proving fault of the party being sued, and all of the sordid details had to be disclosed. I found the details around the law particularly interesting (I am a lawyer after all), and thought it quite bizarre that neither party could testify in their own divorce trial.

Fido Faithfull was certainly a very interesting character, but I must say that I found the account of this story too be a bit too arm's length for me to develop any level of feeling for any of the characters.