Audiovisual Tour Guides
ELIZABETH MACNEAL: HYDE PARK
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Elizabeth Macneal is a Scottish author and potter based in London. Her books Circus of Wonders and The Doll Factory were both Sunday Times bestsellers. The Doll Factory is a #1 international bestseller, translated into 29 languages, and has been recently adapted into a television series on Paramount Plus.
Combining the magic of history, travel and storytelling by allowing visitors to not just see the sites, but step inside their stories.
"Hugely evocative - you can imagine the crowds, displays, and excitement. Both fascinating and moving. Highly recommended!"
Elizabeth Norton, writer, broadcaster and royal historian
Testimonials
"A perfect afternoon stroll into another age, told with capriciousness and verve. Put on your top hats and bring your parasols, Victorian London is just a tap on your phone away!"
Inga Vesper, journalist
"The Great Exhibition walking tour must be the closest thing we have to time travel.”
Anonymous User
The years, decades, centuries have fallen away, and here you are on the 1st of May 1851. Tens of Thousands of people have descended upon London’s Hyde Park. At nine o’clock the turnstiles will open, and you will find yourself at the opening day of The Great Exhibition, a vast, temporary glass museum.
The Crystal Palace, as it has been nicknamed, was built to house more than a hundred thousand exhibits of culture and industry from around the globe. You will behold all of Great Britain’s achievements and that of the countries surrounding it – machines and presses, taxidermy and clothwork, ceramics and ironmongery.
It is the first World’s Fair - the project of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. His reputation rides on its success or failure. The Queen is alive with excitement and will, of course, be in attendance.
Step back in time to witness this dazzling spectacle that was to become a symbol of the Victorian era.
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BOOKS BY ELIZABETH MACNEAL
"Circus of Wonders is a soaring, tumbling, whip-cracking book. Elizabeth Macneal has brought an extraordinary group of characters together in these pages; the result is a glittering world, a story as moving as it is deeply entertaining." -- Daniel Mason, New York Times bestselling author of THE PIANO TUNER
“I’ve missed subway stops to finish a book, but this is the first time I almost missed a plane . . . What more could one want from a Victorian thriller? But Macneal delivers even more . . . It’s a perfect blend of froth and substance, a guilty pleasure wrapped around a provocative history lesson.” - The Washington Post
"A gripping, artfully written historical novel with a highly contemporary sensibility. The setting - 19th century London full of pomp, grime and menace - plays just one part in an immersive and intellectually satisfying narrative that interrogates gender politics, classism, relationships, artistic obsession and erotomania with a painterly eye and gleefully dark heart. Part love story, part gothic novel and leading up to a truly breathless conclusion, this book is destined to be one of the biggest titles of 2019, deservedly so." - Sharlene Teo, award-winning author of Ponti
"This brilliant literary thriller gripped me from the opening page and didn’t relinquish its hold until I’d read the final sentence. The Doll Factory conjures 1850s London in all its grime and glory, possibility and restriction in absorbing, immersive detail. Elizabeth Macneal has created that rare thing: a beautifully researched historical novel with a plot to stop your heart. If this is her first book, I can barely wait to see what she writes next." - Hannah Kent, award-winning author of BURIAL RITES and THE GOOD PEOPLE
"A sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art and obsession." - Paula Hawkins, internationally bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
Awards: Caledonia Novel Award 2018; Radio 2 Book Club pick; Radio 4 Book at Bedtime; Radio 4 Book of the Week