The Victorian fair: freak shows and fisticuffs
Dr Ann Featherstone
- Region:
- East Midlands
- Notice Period:
- Regular (more than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Paid: 50
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 2nd January 2017
- Tagged:
- Entertainment | History | Victorian | Fairs
Think of freak shows and boxing booths, primitive roundabouts and gingerbread, noise, mayhem and crime – the Victorian statute fair, wakes or mop. This talk looks at the history of the fair and explores some of the fascinating shows and showmen that emerged from the 19th century fairground.
Views: 1616 | Enquiries: 11About Dr Ann Featherstone
I am a retired university lecturer and teacher as well as a writer. I write non-fiction books and articles and I’m a historical novelist with two novels to my name. My particular interest is the 19th century: popular entertainment, theatre, music hall and circus, although I do stray into the 20th century. I have appeared on The One Show, The World’s Oldest Joke (with Sir Michael Grade) and in documentaries about fairs and circuses on BBC4. I’ve been a guest expert on Who Do You Think You Are twice, once with Sheridan Smith and in 2016 with Sir Ian McKellan. Recently I appeared in the second series of the BBC's A House Through Time, when the location was Newcastle. .My talks are informative, well-researched and well-presented. Someone said to me recently, “I could have listened to you for another hour!” Praise indeed.
All of my talks are illustrated with good quality Powerpoint slides. I bring my own lap-top and projector. And a screen if necessary.
As well as the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire), I will travel to the West Midlands and South Yorkshire . Of course, all of my talks are available via Zoom.
And I will try and help if you need a speaker at short notice.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Dr Ann Featherstone
- Fools and horses: the Victorian circus
- Music hall: the singers and the songs
- When music hall became variety
- Maidens, murderers and monsters: Victorian melodrama revealed
- From baby farmer to acid bath murderer: a century of crimes and punishments
- Extraordinary Eaters: from giant feasts to stones, cannons and frogs
- A Storm in a Teashop: the Waitresses' Strike of 1908
- The baby-killer and the thief: two Victorian crimes and punishments
- Alfred Wootton, the Man in a Trance: performing hypnotism in the Edwardian variety theatre
- Understanding Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man
- First bite: the earliest stage performances of Bram Stoker's Dracula
- 'I'll polish him off!': the curious history of Sweeney Todd
- 'Here we are again!': a (very) brief history of pantomime
- Season's Greetings: a Christmas Miscellany
- The Bond Street Fortune-tellers and the Lady Detectives
- Ghostly Tales to be Told
- The Murder of the Blackpool widow
- Mashed potato sandwiches and bottle-top tinsel : Rose Buckner's post-war world of home-making
- Food, glorious food
- Sand between the toes
- Wagon and tilt: portable theatres in the 19th and 20th centuries
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