Why a Booktrail?
1894 – 1910: Rich are the delights of late nineteenth-century Manchester
1894 – 1910: Rich are the delights of late nineteenth-century Manchester
Edie and Gnome (Herbert) live in late nineteenth century Manchester.
They share a parallel existence and inhabit one body so one has to lead by day and the other by night. This is gender fluidity as gender equality is a crazy notion in this world and Edie and Gnome have to take it in turns to live, given as they are two sides of the same coin.
Like the yin and yang of humanity, who will win this fight and will night of day prevail?
The crowd shriek like demons and the fireworks answer in hellish agreement. The night sky of Manchester is wallpapered with flame. Spinning cartwheels roll on roads of fire and set the lake ablaze. I spy serpents and stars, Catherine wheels and Roman fountains. Rockets burst and bloom like flowers hurled into the heavens and rain down silver dust
Gnome sings the praises of Belle Vue. What a fairyland it is: More fantastical than any I could dream up in a month of Sundays. He spins stories of Maharajah the elephant…
The closer we draw to our destination the busier the streets. Hyde Road is so think with wagons and omnibuses that not one of them can advance more than an inch at a time….The entrance gate looms above our heads. Through its arch I spy an avenue lined with trees radiant with electric lights
A wooden scaffold has been constructed on the dancing platform. high as the Town Hall if not higher Gnome tugs me underneath, into a jungle of posts and cross-beams.
Author/Guide Rosie Garland Destination: Manchester Departure Time: Late 1894 – 1910
Back to Results