A Summer of Spying

By: Sarah Armstrong
  • Summary

  • Not everyone who is called for jury service is given a case. When Sarah Armstrong received a jury summons during the first lockdown in 2020, she assumed the trial would be cancelled, but it went ahead. Once the case was concluded, Sarah conducted her own online investigation to answer the many questions she was left with about authority, surveillance and belonging. In this limited five part series, Sarah details the prosecution and defence evidence presented in court and explains how the experience shaped not just her understanding of what it means to serve on a jury, but also how it exposes the extent to which our modern life is surveilled.
    Copyright © Sarah Armstrong
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Episodes
  • The case ends
    Jul 8 2021

    Episode 5: In the last episode of A Summer of Spying, Sarah brings together her thoughts about the experience. Plus, not included in the e-book, listen out for a conversation with someone intimately connected to the case.

    This limited five part series draws from the extended version of A Summer of Spying, published by Sandstone Press as an e-book: sandstonepress.com/books/a-summer-of-spying The book is dedicated to Emma Kittle-Pey in recognition of the ten years she has dedicated to teaching creative writing at Colchester Writenight in Essex.

    Sandstone Press have published four of Sarah's novels, the most recent of which deal with a different kind of spying in 1970s Moscow: sandstonepress.com/authors/sarah-armstrong

    Thank you to all at Sandstone Press for allowing this adaptation of the original e-book, especially to Robert Davidson, the managing director, for allowing me to experiment with the text in different forms, and to the editor of the e-book, Nicola Torch, for her help and suggestions.

    Thanks to Arts Council England for awarding me a grant to pursue this adaptation. Thanks also to Sue Dawes for editing and script assistance, to Luke Bull for being in charge of social media and additional writing, and to James Imrie for original music, sound engineering and bearing with me.

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    19 mins
  • The evidence for the defence
    Jul 1 2021

    Episode 4: The Defendant takes the stand. Evidence and testimonies from the previous days collide with the reality of the Defendant and his own, not charmless, account. As the expectation of a verdict looms near, the jury struggles towards a decision, and Sarah finds herself further ingrained into the courtroom proceedings. 

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    16 mins
  • The final evidence for the prosecution
    Jun 24 2021

    Episode 3: The third witness recalls his experience of the night and does not hold back with his accusations against the defendant. The effects of Covid-19 on the courtroom are examined in detail and the difficulties of sustaining an in-person judicial system during a pandemic become clear. Against the stifling, unventilated heat of the courtroom, the case grinds on.

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    16 mins

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