The Sisterhood: Big Brother is watching. But they won't see her coming.

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Bradley worked for many years managing services for people in prisons, mental health hospitals and those without fixed abode. She currently works in education and holds a first-class degree in English literature, in addition to qualifications in creative writing and teaching. As Kate Bradley, she has published two suspense thrillers. A dazzling retelling of the classic dystopian novel, which raises profound questions about how society works, and whether or not woman have political agency. I found it memorable, deeply moving, and at times, terrifying' This is a story about love, about family, about being a woman, a mother, a sister, a friend and ultimately about what you would sacrifice for the greater good. Closer to home, there is a similar interest in re-examining the stories that resonate deeply in our collective imagination. Jean Bedford’s Sister Kate reworks the Kelly gang legend from the point of view of Ned’s sister, Kate, while Leah Purcell interrogates Henry Lawson’s short story in The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson. Sinister, chilling and heart-breaking, it’s a worthy successor to Orwell’s dystopian classic, allowing readers to explore a new version of Julia’s story'

Big Brother is always watching. In a time where everyone is so indoctrinated by the presense of Big Brother, where they accept that they are constantly under surveillance, where they praise Big Brother for his kindness, where they love him, where they devote their lives to him, where the give up their family members for him, he doesn't even exist. He is the voice on the telescreens, the face on posters and yet he is a persona. An illusion. A ghost.Julia thinks that she has identified a member of The Brotherhood. Yet the closer she gets to Winston Smith the more Julia’s past catches up with her. No further details to avoid spoilers. When Julia thinks she’s found a potential member of The Brotherhood, it seems like their goal might finally be in their grasp. But as she gets closer to Winston Smith, Julia’s past starts to catch up with her and we soon realise that she has many more secrets than we’d first imagined – and that overthrowing Big Brother might cost her everything – but if you have nothing left to lose then you don’t mind playing the game . . . The Sisterhood is told from the perspective of Julia, the main female character in 1984. "While on the outside, Julia seems to be the perfect example of what women in Oceania should be – dutiful, useful, subservient, meek – inside she hides a secret," the synopsis reads. "A secret that would lead to her death if discovered. For Julia is part of the underground movement called The Sisterhood, whose main goal is to find members of the Brotherhood, the anti-party vigilante group, and help them to overthrow Big Brother. When Julia thinks she’s found a potential member of the Brotherhood in co-worker Winston Smith, it seems like their goal might finally be in their grasp. In 1820, Mary Shelley completed work on a verse drama titled Proserpine. Her play was based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and told the story of the abduction and imprisonment of Proserpine by Pluto, the god of the underworld. Shelley retold the story from the point of view of Proserpine’s mother Ceres, endowing the women in her play with voice and agency, and excising almost all the male characters from the text. But in this world where having your own opinion is a crime, where the only emotion allowed is love for Big Brother and hate for Oceania's enemies, Outer Party Julia and the other members of The Sisterhood do whatever they can to fight for a free future. Hoping that she found a member of another rebel group - The Brotherhood, Julia sets out to gain information that will finally help then take down Big Brother. But no matter how careful she is, she is always being watched - like everyone else. But she has a weapon, her true identity, which might be the only thing she can use to take down Ingsoc or might be her downfall.

Katherine Bradley has delivered a worthy counterpart to George Orwell's 1984 in this chilling, taut book. It's as claustrophobic as it needs to be; particularly frightening as one looks around and sees that we are voluntarily moving towards Orwell's nightmare. It is nothing short of a triumph' MARA TIMON We underestimate how much a part of literature is rewriting existing literature," agrees Newman. "You want to write something that says what the last book you read didn't say. When you narrow it down to one book, the scales fall from your eyes, and you realise that that's what you've been doing all along." When Julia thinks she's found a potential member of The Brotherhood, it seems like their goal might finally be in their grasp. But as she gets closer to Winston Smith, Julia's past starts to catch up with her and we soon realise that she has many more secrets than we'd first imagined - and that overthrowing Big Brother might cost her everything - but if you have nothing left to lose then you don't mind playing the game. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. A gut-wrenching, heart-breaking journey through the looking glass of 1984. Compulsively written, Julia's is a story begging to be told." - Freya BerryMark Forrest opened the interview by asking Katherine Bradley about how her novel, The Sisterhood, differs from its inspiration, George Orwell’s 1984: ‘There are familiar names in this book, Big Brother, Winston Smith, Ministry of Truth, and Julia, of course, who sits at the centre of this novel. There are many references to Orwell’s 1984. What have you taken? and at what point have you diverged in the story?’ If the lukewarm reaction to Shelley’s retelling suggests that society in her day was not yet ready for those minor female characters to take centre stage, then what does the current enthusiasm for reassessment imply? For Julia is part of the underground movement called The Sisterhood, whose main goal is to find members of The Brotherhood, the anti-Party vigilante group, and help them to overthrow Big Brother. A gut-wrenching, heart-breaking journey through the looking glass of 1984. Compulsively written, Julia’s is a story begging to be told’ – Freya Berry Unfortunately, The Sisterhood doesn’t come close. The early part of the book uses too much of Orwell, there are too many nods and obvious references, so that the reader (well, this reader) wanted a writer who used more of her own inventive imagination, rather than needing Orwell’s to give the whole point.

In recent years, these reassessments have been seen across every form of media. On the stage, there was SIX, a girl-power reimagining of the six Tudor queens who were married to Henry VIII; Emilia, inspired by the 17th century poet and revolutionist Emilia Bassano, who was rumoured to have been the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets and possible author of some of his poems; and MTC’s Cyrano, which retells Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac as a female-led queer love story. Fast-paced and suspenseful . . . The Sisterhood's greatest gift, however, may be in its message of hope, capable of surmounting even the most formidable of odds and the most uncertain of futures' KATHERINE J. CHEN, author of Joan A dazzling retelling of the classic dystopian novel, which raises profound questions about how society works, and whether or not woman have political agency. I found it memorable, deeply moving, and at times, terrifying." - Kate Rhodes Mark asked Katherine Bradley a philosophical question: ‘Why do societies allow this to happen? Having studied Orwell as you have many times and now written The Sisterhood, how do you answer that question?’

Featured Reviews

The disparities between the rich and poor and class divide in this country haven’t dissipated – perhaps only deepened. The wars are depressingly similar. As a woman, I was interested in Julia and wondered if he was writing now without the 1940s gaze, would Orwell write her differently? With agency? And if she had hopes and fears and choices of her own, what would they be? But as she gets closer to Winston Smith, Julia’s past starts to catch up with her and we soon realise that she has many more secrets than we’d first imagined – and that overthrowing Big Brother might cost her everything – but if you have nothing left to lose then you don’t mind playing the game…