Project Publications

We have some exciting upcoming publications planned, based on the project’s topic and research findings.  

Dr Jennifer Aston’s latest book Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in Nineteenth Century England and Wales: ‘For Wives Alone’ was published by Hart Publishing on 14th November 2024. It’s available to order now and you can read the introduction of the book for free! The project will also produce the data required to write a field-defining monograph, provisionally titled Divorce in England and Wales, 1858-1923. It will be the first full length study to examine divorce in 19th and 20th century England and Wales using the records of the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. It will adopt a unique multidisciplinary approach, offering qualitative and quantitative analysis of the dataset drawn from the J77 petitions to the court, accompanied by case studies that illustrate the lived experiences of the court. Dr Jennifer Aston will also be writing a journal article exploring the role of trusts and marriage settlements in divorce cases.  

Dr Diane Ranyard is currently working on adapting her PhD thesis “Decree Nisi with Costs My Lord?”: A Study of Divorce in England and Wales, 1909-1937, into a monograph called The Making of Modern Divorce in England and Wales, 1909-1937. It uses the records of the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes (the J77 files at The National Archives) to provide unique statistical data alongside detailed case studies exploring the lived experience of divorce and marital breakdown. Throughout, it considers legislative and financial reform, and how this combined with the intersection of gender and class to influence an individual’s ability to access divorce, and their experience of the process. This includes the decentralisation of the London Divorce Court, which started in the 1920s, increasing access to divorce for the working classes through the use of local assizes to host divorce cases. It also considers the cultural and emotional aspects of divorce, exploring shifting representations of, and attitudes towards divorce and divorcees, and how shame functioned within the space of the courtroom and in the national and local press.