Custody

‘In this great roar of a book, Feigel, a British feminist writer, tells the enraging history of child custody over the past 200 years. In particular, she traces the special kind of hell that is reserved for women who dare to call out the iniquity of a system that benefits no one, least of all the children… Custody…bursts into new and terrible life is when Feigel sets out to reveal what goes on in today’s family courts’ Sunday Times, Book of the Week

‘An absorbing and heart-breaking study, opening a window into the past and urgently contemporary at the same time’ Tessa Hadley, prize-winning of The Past

‘Powerful and moving, this is also an important book. I couldn’t put it down. Feigel illuminates the pain the legal system has inflicted on children and mothers through to our own time, when courts too often lag behind the reality of living arrangements’ Lisa Appignanesi, author of Losing the Dead

‘Custody is a powerful, courageous and essential book. This is far more than a historical account: it is a vital reckoning with the present. An urgent, necessary read for anyone who cares about the future of family law and the safety of women and children’ Charlotte Proudman, author of He Said, She Said

‘Here, in all their fascinating, irreducible complexity, are Anna Karenina’s real-life sisters. Finely researched and beautifully written, Custody carries a very considerable personal, political and emotional charge. A major achievement’ David Kynaston, author of A Northern Wind: Britain 1962-65

‘Bravo! Feigel demonstrates a true storyteller’s gift for activating landmark historical custody cases, with all their complexity, patriarchal architecture and inhumanity. Feigel shines a light into the dank, secret corners of an opaque, often misogynistic system. This book is vital, timely and profoundly disturbing’ Sarah Hall, prize-winning author of Helm

Lara Feigel is the author of four highly acclaimed works of cultural history and a novel.

She is Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Feigel reviews regularly for The Guardian and contributes to a range of BBC radio programmes.

Most recently, Feigel appeared as a lead contributor in the landmark BBC 1 cultural history of the interwar years, Art that Made Us. In 2023, she will be writing and presenting a programme about Doris Lessing for the Radio 4 prestigious Archive Hour slot.

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