Walking in Pimlico - Ann Featherstone

With its wonderful depiction of Victorian England, a grim Whitechapel murder-thriller plot, some cross-dressing eroticism, all caught up in the theatrical world of music halls and circuses, Ann Featherstone's Walking in Pimlico will almost certainly appeal to fans of Sarah Waters who miss the Victorian melodrama and eroticism of her earlier novels such as Fingersmith and Tipping The Velvet.

Featherstone, previously the co-author of an academic study of the Victorian Clown, clearly knows the period she is writing about, filling the authentic characterisation with authentic and relevant background details that capture the contrast between seediness and the glamour of the period, as well as the seediness behind the glamour of another profession that isn't entirely unconnected from "the oldest profession" itself. There is however no info-dumping of academic research here - everything is in the service of the characterisation and the plot.

Written from a number of first-person viewpoints with an authentic sense of the language and idiom that is appropriate for the class background of each of the characters, the period is brought vividly to life, not least the bawdy music hall comedian and circus clown Corney Sage (also known as Professor Hugh Moore on account of his comic credentials). On the run from a dangerous killer, a well-dressed gent he has witnessed murdering one of the working girls at a Whitechapel music hall show, Corney finds it's safer now to keep on the move and on the road in the itinerant lifestyle of the circus clown.

The murder storyline is not the most convincing element of the novel and often takes a backseat to descriptions of other schemes and the colourful lifestyles of performers who must become adept at thievery, deception and impersonation in order to simply get by. This and the novel's cross-dressing exploits however suit the wider theme of the differences in Victorian attitudes towards men and women, and how each have to find different ways to survive the hard times always just around the corner, trying to keep one step ahead of fate eventually catching up with them. Strong characterisation, a colourful setting, a solid literary and historical theme and some wonderful writing combine then to make this and entertaining novel and one that is easy to get thoroughly involved in.