Apart from books for children, my other favourite genres are fantasy and crime novels, but I don’t usually include those in my blog. However I was asked to take part in this blog tour and felt that this would fit into the KS4 level of a school library. This is very much in the vein of Victorian melodrama mixed with a bit of Gothic and will be appreciated by fans of the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ school of crime story.
Neem Tree Press, 9781915584236
There is a fairly small cast of characters, but three of them are central to the plot, with another couple being very important to the story. The main character is Hastings Wimbury, a ‘wannabe’ young actor who has managed to get a job as part of the lighting team at a London theatre. We also have Cassie, a young assistant to a spiritualist, who lives in the same boarding house as Hastings and finally there is Flora, who is the secret fiancee of Hastings. They are brought together by circumstances and a mysterious figure called ‘The Count’, who persuades Hastings to provide him with gas which is used in the theatre lights. The plot thickens as Hastings is kidnapped and the two girls find themselves working together to try and find him. But who is the sinister Count and does he have any connection to Cassie’s employer?
This is a complex story and conveys the atmosphere of the late Victorian world and central London in particular, very well. the descriptions of the boarding house and the life within is enough to chill any prospective tenant.The date is set to 1883, with an epilogue set 20 years later, so we are in a period where new technologies are being invented and women are starting to want more freedom, as well as often needing to earn a living. This is a story that can be read from KS3 and above, as there are no issues with the content or language. It could prove useful for discussions about women’s rights, the Victorians and about theatre. I wish that I had found the central characters more appealing, but perhaps that was the intention of the author. However, there is plenty of action and even a murder to delight those fans who want as much crime as possible.
About the Author
Matthew Francis is Professor Emeritus in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. He read English at
Magdalene College, Cambridge University. He writes novels, short stories, and poetry collections. He has won the TLS / Blackwell’s Prize for Poetry and the Southern Arts Literature Prize, and been shortlisted twice for the Forward Prize, twice for the Welsh Book of the Year Award and once for the Ted Hughes Award. In 2004, he was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. Matthew lives with this wife in Aberystwyth, Wales where he enjoys playing chess, cooking and playing the ukulele.
The dystopian novel has been a major element in children’s publishing for many years, but having said that, it can be based on a wide range of circumstances which act as trigger points for the disasters. Often, the action is linked to the concerns of the real world; so that over the years we have seen post nuclear worlds, pandemics and currently there is an ever growing understanding of the impact of climate change.
growing fascination in the power of story – the way it shapes our lives and frames our experience.
at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.