Hear No Evil: Shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger 2023

Product Information

I hadn’t realised there was a Deaf and Dumb Institution in Edinburgh at the time so it was really interesting to read about Robert Kinniburgh, a teacher from the school, and how he managed to communicate with Jean to uncover the truth. In the novel, he does a lot more, repeatedly going to Glasgow to ascertain the facts of the case and see if he can uncover anything that could save Campbell from either the hangman’s noose or the insane asylum.

The author’s interest seems to be deaf communication and education and the sections delving into that were by far the strongest. Lots of interesting information about sign language and how deaf people were perceived and the story was good too. As Jean grows to trust Robert, she reveals what really happened on that bridge over the river Clyde. This production uses a fusion of sign language, image and performance to tell the story of Jean Campbell, a Deaf woman in Glasgow, who in 1817 was accused of murder when her young child fell from her shoulders and drowned in the Clyde. A fascinating exploration of deafness and human value amid the sights, sounds and smells of urban Scotland in 1817.

Hear No Evil is based on the true story of Jean Campbell, a deaf woman accused of throwing her baby into the Clyde. I've not read many novels which describe this experience and in particular, none set in historical times and found this aspect of Hear No Evil particularly fresh and intriguing. Sometimes the explanations go on for far longer than one would expect – Kinniburgh’s exposition on sign language to a partly deaf congregation lasts for ten full pages – but as the story is set at a time when signing is still new and strange, it is easy to understand why. Those with power, like the trial judge Lord Succoth, are hostile to the poor, condemn them for their poverty and denigrate their morals.

Sarah Smith's stirring novel is a fictionalised account of the real-life criminal prosecution of a deaf woman for infanticide.Her trial made legal history for another reason: the court employed Edinburgh deaf school owner Robert Kinniburgh to help in her interrogation. As Robert treads a fine line between interpreter and investigator, he becomes absolutely determined to clear her name before it is too late. It also highlights misconceptions and prejudices surrounding deaf people, just because their mode of communication was different from the hearing population. John Gordon Sinclair (2014 event) John Gordon Sinclair continues to put distance between himself and Gregory’s Girl, the film that made his name. Trevor Royle speaks with Magnus Linklater at the Edinburgh International Book Festival While Scotland has been free of major military conflict since the 1940s, it could have been different had the Cold War escalated.