Rogues and vagabonds

Set in early nineteenth-century London and beyond, the novel follows a circle of actors, managers and lovers as they live by spectacle and persuasion amid changing theatres and pleasure-gardens. It portrays their romantic entanglements, professional rivalries and shifting fortunes against urban development and commercial pressures. Scenes alternate between public performances, backstage bustle and private domestic moments, tracing the compromises and loyalties required to sustain a theatrical career. Through episodic episodes of triumph, decline and reinvention, the narrative examines ambition, vanity and the persistence of performance as both livelihood and identity.