C J Carey’s Widowland is set in an alternative history in which a Grade Alliance has been formed between Great Britain and Germany, George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as King. All powers, however, are vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain’s Protector, whose particular interest is the role and status of women. Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and she works in the Ministry of culture re-writing literature to re-write the past. Then, she is given a special task, she must infiltrate Widowland – the rundown slums where childless women over 50 live – and try to find the source of recent rebellion.