One woman’s story of rising above hardship, the historic campaign to free her wrongly convicted husband from jail, and personal betrayal.

In the mid-1970s, the legend "GEORGE DAVIS IS INNOCENT – OK" was graffitied all over London’s East End. In the ‘Sweeney’ era of rough justice, the cockney cab driver was convicted of armed robbery purely on a dubious identification. The campaign to free him from a severe sentence became a consuming obsession to his wife, Rose, and their closest friends. When the campaign entered the national consciousness with the sabotage of the test match pitch at Headingley, the establishment fought back with prison sentences. In THE WARS OF ROSIE, Rose Dean, the ex-wife of George Davis, gives her personal account of the epochal moment when a group of working-class East Enders took their fight to the streets. Powered by a sense of moral outrage, Rose and her cohorts pursued a strategy of ever more extreme, headline-grabbing publicity stunts – until the historic day in May 1976, when the campaign succeeded in overturning George’s conviction and changing the law on suspect ID. But within less than 18 months, George Davis shocked and confounded all who supported him when caught red-handed in a raid on the Bank of Cyprus. Rose was left to re-evaluate her marriage, and to absorb the latest bout of hardship with the same fortitude with which she has lived her whole life. Told in her own words, THE WARS OF ROSIE is the story of a woman who maintained her optimism through all of life’s hard knocks – from her husband’s betrayal to loss of the beloved daughter who came through the dark days of the 1970s with her.

Rose Dean-Davis has lived in London’s East End for almost all of her life, and bears witness to the social changes of the last few decades. In the 1970s, she became the public face of the campaign to free her husband, George Davis. As the case became an international cause célèbre, she was even described in the US press as "a national figure, regularly on television news programs, her dark eyes blazing, screaming at police during protest rallies and court appearances." This is her story.

The Telegraph - 3rd February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Guardian - 3rd February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Evening Standard - 3rd February 2009 an article about Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Evening Standard - 4th February 2009 another article about Rosie INTERNAL LINK
The Times - 5th February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Daily Mail - 6th February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Observer - 8th February 2009 an article about Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Economist - 12th February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

The Independent - 16th February 2009 an obituary for Rosie INTERNAL LINK

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