Booktopia has been placed into Voluntary Administration. Orders have been temporarily suspended, whilst the process for the recapitalisation of Booktopia and/or sale of its business is completed, following which services may be re-established. All enquiries from creditors, including customers with outstanding gift cards and orders and placed prior to 3 July 2024, please visit https://www.mcgrathnicol.com/creditors/booktopia-group/

The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey

WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice

By: Julia Laite

Write A Review

eBook | 1 April 2021

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eBook

RRP $15.42

$13.99

Instant Digital Delivery to your Booktopia Reader App

An extraordinary story.

1910, Wellington, New Zealand. Lydia Harvey is sixteen, working long hours for low pay, when a glamorous couple invite her to Buenos Aires. She accepts - and disappears.

London, England. Amid a global panic about sex trafficking, detectives are tracking a ring of international criminals when they find a young woman on the streets of Soho who might be the key to cracking the whole case.

As more people are drawn into Lydia's life and the trial at the Old Bailey, the world is being reshaped into a new, global era. Choices are being made - about who gets to cross borders, whose stories matter and what justice looks like - that will shape the next century. In this immersive account, historian Julia Laite traces Lydia Harvey through the fragments she left behind to build an extraordinary story of aspiration, exploitation and survival - and one woman trying to build a life among the forces of history.

About the Author

Julia Laite is a senior lecturer in modern history at Birkbeck, University of London. As an expert in the history of prostitution, she has written for the Guardian, Open Democracy and History & Policy, and appeared on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and Making History, as well as the television programme Find My Past.

Industry Reviews

'A gripping, unputdownable masterpiece of scholarly historical research and true crime writing.'
Hallie Rubenhold

'Brilliantly summons up one girl's life, dreams and suffering. It's ingenious history writing'
Mail on Sunday

'Extraordinary'
Guardian

'Historical writing does not get any better than this ... Imaginative and compelling, impassioned and powerful, and deeply, deeply moving'
Matt Houlbrook, author

'A gripping, unputdownable masterpiece of scholarly historical research and true crime writing. Julia Laite explores the sordid world of crime, sex and international policing in 1910 by focusing on the individuals caught up in an elaborate web of exploitation. Readers who loved The Five will find this story and its skilful telling equally as enthralling.'
Hallie Rubenhold, author