To celebrate my new Victorian gothic novel entering the Sunday Times Best Seller List at number 10, I'd like to post a very short reading from the first pages of The Fascination. But first of all, here is a brief description of what the novel is about... Victorian England.  A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres.  A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions… Twin sisters, Keziah and Tilly Lovell, are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn't grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father's quack elixir as they tour the count ..read more

My new Victorian gothic novel is called The Fascination. It's a book about finding acceptance in a world where anyone different is at risk of scorn or abuse ... or used for entertainment purposes. The story has settings in the Victorian rural fairgrounds, the glamour of the London theatres, and an anatomy museum in a shop in Oxford Street, based on one that did exist, which you can read about here. The plot surrounds twin sisters, Tilly and Keziah Lovell, identical in every way except that one of them stopped growing at the age of only five ... and in due course her size and beauty draws a ..read more

Princess Lottie In my new Victorian gothic novel, The Fascination (published by Orenda Books in June 2023), I have a character who never grows in size beyond the age of five.   There are many different forms of restricted growth, or dwarfism, but to generalise there are two main groups ~ disproportionate (achondroplasia) when the torso is generally much longer than the limbs, and due to malformed bone or cartilage the spine and legs can be curved, or bowed, and the forehead can be very prominent ~ or proportionate, when the body looks much the same as a fully-grown person's, but is si ..read more

Victoria Woodhull 1838-1927 The VV has been musing on the life of Victoria Woodhull – who was (although few have heard of her now) the very first woman who made a bid to stand for the American presidency, as far back as 1872.  Not that her attempt met with success. At that time women had no legal vote and, on the day of Grant’s re-election his female rival was safely imprisoned on charges of libel and pornography. But, what had preceded such ignominy? Victoria's was a sensational life.  She was born in Ohio in 1838 and during her early years was pa ..read more

Halloween is a tradition made popular in America, where pumpkin lanterns in front of doors invite children to 'Trick-or-Treat 'while dressed in spooky fancy dress, as skeletons, witches, or ghosts – and sometimes even Dracula. The supernatural or ‘Undead’ have some historical relevance regarding Halloween. Once known as Samain or ‘Sow in’, this ancient Celtic festival signified the new year, when the harvest had been gathered and the winter lay ahead. On its eve, October 31st, the divisions between the living and dead were said to part, almost like an open curtain, allowing supernatural fo ..read more

William Jackson Crawford was a paranormal investigator who the author A. J. West has given the name of The Spirit Engineer;  a name that also happens to be the title for West's novel. In many ways William's life is a mystery, his story all but forgotten by even the most devoted of scholars into the world of spiritualist study. However, A J West discovered that William, who was born in New Zealand, travelled to Glasgow as a young adult where he first became a teacher, before moving on the Belfast and coming to the attention of the great magician Houdini, and also Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ..read more

On 19th August 2021 Thames and Hudson will be publishing Christopher Valkoinen's  Railways ~ A History in Drawings. Magnificent engineering drawings spanning two centuries give unique design and social perspectives on the development of railway transport. There are plans of locomotives, of carriages, and wagons, along with the stations, bridges and tunnels that were first built in the nineteenth century.  Around a million drawings have survived and are currently held in the National Railway Museum in York, which is where Christopher Valkoinen  ~ who is a qualified steam loco ..read more

When writing her novel, The Somnambulist, the VV wanted to introduce a perfume that would have been in production during the mid nineteenth century; a fragrance that might have been suitable for men and women alike - and the heady and glamorous concoction of Penhaligan's Hammam Bouquet fitted that need to perfection. First created by William Penhaligon in 1872, this lovely fragrance, still manufactured today, is described as being ‘...animalic and golden... warm and mature, redolent of old books, powdered re ..read more

In 1892, by which time the bicycle had become an everyday sight in Victorian life, Henry Dacre composed a song that became immensely popular, both in the London music halls, and also in America. The lyrics featured a tandem - a bicycle made for two - and the song was said to be based on the real-life Countess of Warwick, Frances Evelyn 'Daisy' Greville; a champion of women's rights, and also a mistress of the Prince of Wales.  Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer do! I'm half crazy, All for the love of you! It won't be a stylish marria ..read more

Eadweard Muybridge (1830 ~1904) Eadweard Muybridge was born in Kingston on Thames in 1830, when he was known by the somewhat duller name of Edward James Muggeridge. At the age of 22 he left England for America to seek his fame and fortune. He first worked in New York as a bookbinder's agent, and then moved on to San Francisco where his interest in photography bloomed. Using a mobile darkroom that he christened The Flying Studio, he produced stunning stereoscopic landscapes, such as this one from within a volcano… The fame that Muybridge de ..read more