Verdict of Twelve

This novel, published in 1940, is a multifaceted crime mystery that focuses on the trial of a woman for the murder of the orphaned great-nephew who had been entrusted to her care. The author, Raymond Postgate (born 6 November 1896), was an Oxford-educated academic. On graduation in 1917, he sought exemption from military service on the grounds of pacifism and socialism. His case was dismissed. He was offered a non-combatant role in the army but he refused it. He was then forcibly conscripted before being discharged as medically unfit.

Postgate’s pacifism and socialism are visible in several elements of this novel. In particular, he includes in his accounts of the background of the members of the jury either tragic outcomes of the war or a well-defined class consciousness. These background accounts in their variety and eccentricity resemble the approach of Georges Perec’s Life: a user's manual. Victoria Atkins, for example, had moved to London to work in a munitions factory and by the end of the war had saved some £200. Her little niece was orphaned by the war:
"Irene Olga Hutchins, sole reminder of the two younger male Atkinses... 'two' because there was a regrettable doubt which of them was the father, and both were beyond reach of questioners in a Flanders cemetery."
Another juror reflects:
"Adrian, Frederick, Lionel, Alistair... where were they... They were all golden or dark boys, whom he had loved passionately, and who had elegantly supported his uncouth and obvious affection... Where were they now? Adrian, Maurice, Alistair, Lionel... some of them were dead. Handsome and young an dead..."
"There has been, after all, one who had not been indifferent to his shambling tutor. He had been allowed to call him Dion... His Dion had enlisted in 1915 in the R.F.C. and had come back within a week broken. He lived three days in hospital, unconscious: he was buried in the cemetery of the Wiltshire village where he was born."

As for the young boy, Philip, and his great-aunt at the centre of the trial, the author tells of that family's loss in the war:
"Philip's grandfather, Sir Henry Arkwright,... had had three sons to inherit his considerable fortune. All three had served in the army during the 1914 war. Michael, the eldest, had been killed with thousands of others at Passchendaele. Arnold, the professional soldier, had been the only one to come through unscathed. He had served in the East and after the war had gone with his young wife to take up a responsible post in East Africa. Robert, the youngest, was called up in February 1918. Before he went out, he married Rosalie Brentt [the woman later charged with murder]... It was a war marriage... Robert never had time either to repent or to feel his [father's] wrath. He was posted as missing in July 1918: he was never heard of again."