'Love this book!... an intriguing mystery... you can't put it down. I'm looking forward to read about the next Poppy Denby adventures.' Reader review, 5 stars * Previously published as The Kill Fee * London, 1920. Newly promoted intrepid reporter Poppy Denby is tasked with her first big job for the Daily Globe: covering the royal exhibition at the Crystal Palace alongside dashing Globe photographer Daniel Rokeby. The champagne is flowing, the guests look resplendent in their finery, and the jewel in the imperial crown is a glittering Fabergé egg. But before the party is even in full swing, the lights go out and when they finally come on again, the guests are horrified to discover that the famous egg has disappeared. Miss Denby is determined to be the first reporter to get the scoop and find the culprit. Her investigation will lead her to no other than Princess Selena Romanova Yusopova, a cousin of the murdered Romanov family. Selena is now a leading lady at the Old Vic Theatre but when Poppy knocks on her dressing room ready to get her exclusive, she finds her sprawled across a pink chaise longue, drenched with blood - stabbed through the heart. Who could want the princess dead and is this a murder of passion or is it somehow connected to the great heist of the priceless Fabergé egg? It's up to the ever-brilliant Miss Poppy Denby to find out. Readers love Murder at the Old Vic Theatre! 'Even more intriguing and pacey. I love the characters, especially Rollo, Delilah and Novoski... the story-telling sparkles... Enthralling.' Reader review, 5 stars 'I'd looked forward to this for months and was not disappointed!' Reader review, 5 stars 'Waiting for the next book ? Love the period and adventures.' Reader review, 5 stars 'Fast-paced, great opening, set in London in 1920s and also in Russia from 1917 onwards, during the revolution. It is about the theft of a Faberge egg containing secrets... and then murder!' Reader review, 5 stars 'I was over the moon to see most of the regular cast making a return... an epic and lively mystery set in an era of elegance and intrigue.' Reader review, 5 stars 'Loved this book and am getting ready to purchase the next.' Reader review, 5 stars

Home of opera in English, as well as British ballet. Above all it was the birthplace of the world-famous Old Vic Company and saw the first appearances of Britain's National Theatre Company, directed by Laurence Olivier. Among the actors to perform at the Old Vic were John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Charles Laughton, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. The book contains numerous illustrations from the early years of the Theatre and of important productions. It includes a.

Historical true crime comes to life with this fictionalized account of a nineteenth-century murder that changed the course of British legal history. England, 1817. In the small hours of May 27th, a young servant girl from the village of Erdington left a party in the company of a man with a bad reputation. A few hours later, Mary Ashford’s lifeless body was found drowned in a pond. Despite a seemingly solid alibi, Abraham Thornton is soon on trial for his life—only to be acquitted at the direction of the judge. Public opinion across the country is outraged, with everyone convinced that a murderer has evaded the gallows. In a last-ditch effort to find justice, Mary’s brother uses an archaic legal process to prosecute Thornton again, only to find himself confronted with an extraordinary challenge. In court, Thornton throws down a gauntlet and demands his legal right to trial by combat . . . and the outcome will alter the course of English legal history. A many-layered fictionalized account, The Murder of Mary Ashford examines the particulars of this famous case while exploring the birth of forensic investigation, the meaning of sexual consent, and the struggle of a modern state to emerge from its medieval heritage.

Secret Southwark and Blackfriars explores the little-known and colourful history of Southwark and Blackfriars on the River Thames in the heart of London through a fascinating selection of stories, facts and photographs.

The Strand is one of London's most iconic streets - today the bustling and thriving home of West End theatres and the luxurious Savoy hotel; in the Victorian era, the Strand was a much more seedy and destitute part of the city. Barry Anthony here explores the criminal and socially subversive behaviour which abounded in and around the Victorian Strand. He introduces us to a vast range of personalities - from prostitutes, confidence tricksters, vagrants and cadgers to the actors, comedians and music hall stars who trod the boards of the Strand's early theatres.

"Blue Murder is an absolute cracker, as ingenious as it is riotously funny" (Daily Telegraph) Blue Murder opens with Foreign Bodies, where Swinging London meets bourgeois Shrewsbury and the drinks are laced with cyanide. As the son of the household struggles to write his first play, a murder story is offered to him on a plate. The second half, A Game of Soldiers, is a Whitehall farce taking place in St James's Palace. The same dramatist has brought his complete play to be censored but The Lord Chamberlain's Men have a few shameful secrets of their own to hide, including a priapic guardsman.

Contains the complete scripts, a running synopsis of the action, explanations of unfamiliar words, and a variety of classroom-tested activities.

How many acts of murder have each of us followed on a screen? What does that say about us? Do we remain law-abiding citizens who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Film historian David Thomson, known for wit and subversiveness, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister narrative process. By turns seductive and astringent, very serious and suddenly hilarious, Murder and the Movies admits us into what Thomson calls “a warped triangle”: the creator working out a compelling death; the killer doing his and her best; and the entranced reader and spectator trying to cling to life and a proper sense of decency.

The Old Vic, one of the world's great theatres, opened in 1818 with rowdy melodrama and continued with Edmund Kean in Richard III howled down by the audience. One impresario, among the first of thirteen to go bankrupt there, fled to Milan and ran La Scala. In 1848 a chorus girl tried to murder the leading lady. In 1870 the Vic became a music hall, then a temperance tavern and, from 1912, under Lilian Baylis, both an opera house and the home of Shakespeare. By the 1930s great actors were happy to go there for a pittance - John Gielgud, Charles Laughton, Peggy Ashcroft, and Laurence Olivier. The Vic considered itself a national theatre in all but name. After the second world war the Royal Ballet and the English National Opera both sprang from the Vic, and the National Theatre, at last established in 1963 under Olivier, made its first home there. In 1980 the Vic was saved from becoming a bingo hall by a generous Toronto businessman. Since 2004 Kevin Spacey, Hollywood actor and the winner of two Oscars, has led a new company there, and toured the world.

Discussing more than 80 full-length plays, this volume provides an overview of the most important and memorable theatrical works of crime and detection produced between 1975 and 2000. Each entry includes a plot synopsis, production data, and the opinions of well-known and respected critics and scholars.