Dr Ann Featherstone’s research into Victorian society has shed new light on some of the darkest alleyways in Victorian history. Her debut novel, Walking in Pimlico, is an evocative murder mystery that captures the soul of a period she has spent many years researching. Dr Featherstone conducted a great deal of her research for the novel whilst working as a Research Assistant in the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Walking in Pimlico explores the little-known nooks and crannies of the Victorian circus, painting a vivid picture of the spell-binding but largely indecent underbelly of 19th Century society. With the use of a microfilm reader at Royal Holloway, Dr Featherstone immersed herself in copies of 19th Century publication ‘The Era’, which is similar to today’s trade publication ‘The Stage’. Extensive analysis of its arcane details, back-stage scandals and shocking stories of infant murders played an essential role in Dr Featherstone’s research.
Dr Featherstone explains, “My research has allowed me to look at things that no one has looked at before. I feel like I am looking inside cupboards that have been left untouched for a very long time. ‘The Era’ is fantastic because it gives you everything – from the height of dramatic excellence, to the very lowliest production in the Corn Exchange in Grantham.”
Dr Featherstone collaborated with Professor Jacky Bratton, also from Royal Holloway’s Department of Drama and Theatre, for five years on the Victorian Research Project, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Their research culminated in them co-authoring the successful book ‘The Victorian Clown’, which they discussed on Channel Four programme ‘Richard and Judy’.
Professor Bratton comments, “Ann was a great research assistant – we had many fruitful years of collaboration on our AHRC project aimed at a revision of Victorian theatre history. She has happily become ever more familiar with the weird nooks and crannies of that world, until this long-lost secret life of the stage has now surfaced in ‘Walking in Pimlico’. It is a novel that richly and funnily, as well as amazingly accurately, depicts the nether worlds of Victorian entertainment.”
‘Walking in Pimlico’ follows a pair of talented stage actors as they flee from their best friend’s mysterious murderer. The pair adopt various aliases to avoid detection, and end up giving the performance of a lifetime as they move through a dark but colourful world of exotic madams, confidence tricksters and stage folk. The future looks promising for Dr Featherstone’s writing career, with John Murray Publishers already commissioning her to write a sequel.
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