*THE INSPIRATIONAL MEMOIR FROM JO HAMILTON, AND WINNER OF THE SPEAKIES AWARD FOR NON-FICTION*
WITH A FOREWORD FROM SIR ALAN BATES
'Jo is an inspiration', Monica Dolan, who played Jo in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office
'My first big discrepancy came in the shape of a £2,000 shortfall that just made no sense at all. Of all the things that kept me awake once in the thick of the nightmare that unfolded, it was being stuck in that truly incomprehensible moment where the mere touch of a button suddenly turned £2,000 into £4,000 within three minutes on that cold December night in 2003.'
Jo Hamilton was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 based on information from the Post Office's faulty Horizon accounting system. She was told to put right a wrong she hadn't committed and pushed to the very brink of her existence - remortgaging her house, borrowing from anyone she could in order to repay money that she hadn't taken, and questioning her own sanity.
Immortalised in ITV smash hit drama, Mr Bates v The Post Office, this is Jo Hamilton's extraordinary first-hand account of how she built a Post Office that was at the very heart of her community and lost it all through no fault of her own. For the first time, beyond the headlines and the corridors of the High Court and the UK's political institutions, we will finally hear Jo's full story and the human side of this scandal as well as the untold struggle she faced during the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern history. Ultimately, this is a story of hope and the strength of community and the ability of a few to fight back against the odds. Jo Hamilton (Author, Narrator)
Immortalised in the Bafta award-winning ITV drama, Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, Jo Hamilton was one of the "Post Office 39," a group of former sub-postmasters and post-mistresses who were convicted of offences including theft, false accounting, and fraud, based on information from a computer system called Horizon which suggested that money had gone missing from post-office branch accounts. Born in Hampshire, Jo ran the local post office in South Warnborough. The 'poster girl' of the fight against the biggest miscarriage of justice of our generation, together with Sir Alan Bates Jo has been at the forefront of fighting for justice for the more than 700 postmasters that were illegally convicted, and remains committed to getting justice for all involved.
The extraordinary memoir from Jo Hamilton, a victim at the very heart of the Post Office/Horizon scandal The inquiry into the Post Office scandal is set to be published next Summer, and we will publish alongside to capture the interest in the case. With a Foreword from Sir Alan Bates, one of the leading campaigners for victims of the Post Office scandal. The first direct source memoir from a person, and now personality, at the very heart of the Post Office/Horizon scandal and immortalised in ITV's smash hit drama Mr Bates v The Post Office. The ITV drama was one of the most talked about shows in recent years and the subject isn't going away. It'sremains headline news and Jo is one of the most recognisable personalities associated with the scandal. The contrast of the quintessential British village post office and the courtrooms of the Old Bailey set to make this a powerful story, almost like a Richard Curtis film come to life. The PR campaign will be a grass roots one that celebrates the community of the postmasters, the incredible David vs. Goliath they took on, and also celebrating the unique situation of the individual communities coming together to support their postmasters.
