The Petticoat Men (57 page)

Authors: Barbara Ewing

Tags: #Fiction, #Historical

To all these people my grateful thanks.

I would also like to thank my editor at Head of Zeus, Laura Palmer, whose brain seemed to attach itself to mine during the editing of the manuscript.

And, finally, to my beloved British Library, where I have just about taken up permanent residence, and the patient staff there, my gratitude for providing me with most of the books listed below, to the authors of which I am indebted.

Victorian London: the life of a city 1840–1870
by Liza Picard (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2003)

Lost London 1870–1945
by Philip Davies (Trans Atlantic, Amersham 2009)

Gladstone: 1809–1898
by H.C.G. Matthew (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997)

Gladstone’s Diaries: with cabinet minutes and prime ministerial correspondence (1869–1871)
edited by H.C.G. Matthew (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1982)

Gladstone and Women
by Anne Isba (Hambledon Continuum, London 2006)

A Beckford Inheritance: the Lady Lincoln scandal
by Virginia Surtees (Michael Russell Publishing Ltd, Salisbury 1977)

Edward VII: Prince and King
by Giles St Aubyn (Collins, London 1979)

Bertie: a life of Edward VII
by Jane Ridley (Chatto & Windus, London 2012)

Masculinity and Male Homosexuality in Britain 1861–1913
by Sean Brady (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2005)

The Changing Room: sex, drag & theatre
by Laurence Senelick (Routledge, London 2000)

Men in Petticoats: The Lives of Boulton & Park, Extraordinary Revelations
(pamphlet: George Clarke,
London 1870)

Sodom on the Thames
by Morris B. Kaplan (Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY 2005)

Nameless
Offences
by H.G. Cocks (I.B. Tauris, London 2010)

Crossing the Stage: controversies on cross-dressing
edited by Lesley Ferris (Routledge, London 1993)

Reclaiming Sodom
edited by Jonathan Goldberg (Routledge, London 1994)

London and the Culture of Homosexuality 1885–1914
by Matt Cook (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003)

The Sins of the Cities of the Plain
by “Jack Saul” (Privately printed, London 1881)

Bad Companions
by William Roughead (W. Green & Son, Edinburgh 1930)

Who Was that Man?: a present for Mr Oscar Wilde
by Neil Bartlett (Serpent’s Tail, London 1988)

Lewis & Lewis
by John Juxon (Collins, London 1983)

A Little Gay History
by R.B. Parkinson (The British Museum, London, 2013)

The trial records can be consulted at Kew under the numbers KB 6/3 and DPP 4/6.

About this Book

The Victorian gossipmongers called them the Men in Petticoats. But to Mattie Stacey, they are Freddie and Ernest, her gentlemen lodgers. It is Mattie who admires their sparkling gowns, makes their extravagant hats and laughs at their stories of attending theatres and society balls dressed up as the glamorous “Fanny” and “Stella.”

But one fateful night Fanny and Stella are arrested, and Mattie and her family are dragged into a shocking court trial, described in newspapers all over England as “The Scandal of the Century.”

Mattie is outraged. She and her family are determined to save themselves from ruin, and their friends Freddie and Ernest from shame. But they are just small cogs in a bigger story that will involve many people in the establishment, including the Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. For Fanny and Stella are dangerous ladies, and these are dangerous times…

The Petticoat Men
is a gripping historical novel taking a new and startling look at a real trial which reached from the corridors of power to the darkest London alleys.

Reviews

Praise for
Barbara Ewing

‘Ewing weaves a complex plot darting teasingly between past and present, and fastens off all the threads so that the pattern is satisfyingly complete.’
Daily Telegraph

‘Ewing is an accomplished storyteller who puts the pleasure of her readers first.’
Independent

‘Consistently entertaining, amusing and enlightening – what more can one ask?’
Sunday Telegraph

‘Rich, vivid and interesting… plenty of fascinating detail.’
The Times

About the Author

B
ARBARA
E
WING
is a New Zealand-born actress and author who lives in London. She is the author of eight novels, one of which, A Dangerous Vine, was longlisted for the Orange Prize.

Visit her website at
www.barbaraewing.com
.

A Letter from the Publisher

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The story starts here.

First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Jacket design: Leo Nickolls

The moral right of Barbara Ewing to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 9781781859964

Trade paperback ISBN: 9781781859827

eBook ISBN: 9781781859841

Head of Zeus Ltd

Clerkenwell House

45-47 Clerkenwell Green

London EC1R 0HT

www.headofzeus.com

Contents

Cover