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1881: From London’s East End to 19th Century Paris and to the heart of the British Empire
Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill-Fortune
What you need to know before your trail
March 1881, London’s East End.
Kitty Peck is only seventeen but she’s no ordinary seventeen year old and is the heiress to Paradise, the criminal empire where she crossed paths and worked for the formidable Lady Ginger. Now she’s gone and so Kitty finds herself in a new world, far away from the music halls she is used to and with a lot more power in a world where women usually have none.
A search for her brother Joey takes her to Paris but he asks that she takes something back to London with her. Something which she really wasn’t expecting to have anything to do with – a child. Once back in London however, she realises that someone has been following her and that they seem to be after what she now has…
Travel Guide
London
From the music halls to criminal empires. Born and bred in Limehouse, Kitty is a force to be reckoned with. She knows the streets like the back of her hand, is street wise, street smart and now in charge of the criminal manor she once worked for.
This is a London where the sweat of the stage is matched with the sweat of the people and animals milling around its streets. Where the stench is as good as any signpost for finding your way and where the world of the music hall, with its soft velvet seats and teasing feather bowers are just a glimpse of what life could be like if you lived in the setting of a penny dreadful as she does.
From the stage to the sewers – London is a world of opportunity and danger. Where the brothels outnumber the pubs and the pubs outnumber the theatres but the opium dens outnumber them all.
The music hall and the world of the theatre is as theatrical as you would hope. the descriptions sing from the page and have your turning the pages as flamboyantly as you were throwing a feather bower over your shoulder. Life dealing with the punters is hard but this is a life peppered with real life, hardy and fascinating characters such as Kitty Peck.
Paris
Griffin also evokes Paris extremely well and we visit sites as far from the theatre halls and opera halls here to the graveyards and smelly streets of the red light areas in and around the city. Streets where dens and brothels are doing a good trade and where Kitty flees from with a babe in arms.
And to that mysterious address of Rue des Carmelites…
Streetview Maps
A) London - Wilton's Music Hall
E) Paris - Rue des Rosiers
Trail Gallery
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill Fortune
Destination: London Departure Time: 1880s
Ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin…
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