Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?: The Post Office Scandal and My Extraordinary Fight for Justice

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Jo Hamilton

Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?

The Post Office Scandal and My Extraordinary Fight for Justice

Jo Hamilton

$45

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

BLINK Publishing
19 June 2025

Biography; Memoirs; True stories; Politics & government; Demonstrations & protest movements

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.

By: Jo Hamilton
Imprint: BLINK Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9781785123764
ISBN 10: 1785123769
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 19 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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.