Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear

by Erin Pizzey

143p paperback, well preserved, spine a little creased, a clean copy, this copy published in the year 1974 in the series entitled Penguin Special.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction

143 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1974

Reviews

[Rachel Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a fun book, as one might guess, but it is an important one to the issue of domestic violence. It's a book that is about both history and our human nature, though it's only historical because it was published in the 1970's; at the time of printing, it was accurate to its situation.

There were, and still are, a lot of women, men and children suffering due to familial violence, and Erin Pizzey captures this well in her book about her work with the Women's Aid in Chiswick. Her final note is that she plans to have a Family Rescue instead of a Women's Aid, because she has noticed, as uncomfortable as it is, that at least a third of the women coming to them are as violent as the men, and that the men are also in need of help. The book itself is less forthright with this idea, but one can see that Ms. Pizzey is not an uncritical observer, and had to reach this conclusion after several years of working with battered women and their children.

I think it's a valuable book to read to understand part of how we got to where we are now in terms of domestic violence, and to see where things used to stand, at least in clear picture in Britain and less clearly so in the rest of the Western World.

[Isaac Quill]

The second Imprint adds extra value as it confirms that Erin Pizzey had by 1976 opened the First Refuge For Men and Boys, in line with her findings that Domestic Violence was not gendered but Social and Generational - and that Women were often as violent as men.

As Pizzey reports in her Autobiography "This Way to the Revolution: A Memoir"", whilst she had unquestioning support for Women's refuges and National Builders & Millionaires on tap to write cheques, no-one would help her with her Men's Refuge and after 6 months it had to be closed and the house handed back to the London Council.

This is an early example of what has become known as "Male Disposability" - men simply don't count in society except for what they can do to fund and protect society, even at the expense of their own lives. See "The Myth of Male Power" by Warren Farrell

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrifying in her blunt honesty and recital of women's stories, Pizzey wastes no time in taking to task society, the government, and social service agencies for their utter failure to help women trying to escape from abusive relationships. I think this is probably one of the first books, if not the first book, to deal with the subject on an intimate level, rather than a scholarly one. What really struck me is how much has changed, and yet how little has changed in the fight to end violence against women since the 1970s, when Erin Pizzey published her book.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just amazing, read this as a teenager and was in denial that this kind of thing went on...I think I became a young adult afterwards.

[Nancy Mindlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

These people were amazing with the work they did! What made me sad is that all of the insights and all of the problems are still with us, forty years later! This book deserves to become hugely popular all over again. It needs to be re-read! Far and wide! It contains many very, very important understandings of human psychology and family dynamics!

[Miruna Radu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very quick read :D

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the first books written about domestic violence and is a very powerful read.

Pizzey is a pioneer by creating the first women's shelter in the UK to protect women from their violent spouses.