Broome Stages

the long version

A review quoted in the blog, Clothes in Books: "It’s a very long book indeed, (700 pages), and in a very general way it’s a family saga, but it’s like no family saga I’ve ever read, before or since. It spans 1715 to 1930, and covers seven generations of a theatrical family. The story begins with travelling players in tavern courtyards, and traces the family’s fortunes – through the Victorian actor managers, those lovely fruity characters who re-wrote Shakespeare to suit themselves – and on into the opening years of the 20th century, with the onset of the early movies. It’s about the changing world of the theatre, but it’s also about the Broomes themselves – their loves and hates, and feuds and plots. It’s about their fortunes in the theatre world – the buying of theatres, the building of a theatrical dynasty. Woven into it all, is the famous ‘Broome charm’ – the gift bestowed on the first Broome of them all by a notorious witch of the time. As a result – “All the Broomes have charm,” explains the opening line. “It is their epithet.” The writing is exquisite – polished and graceful – and the characters and their backgrounds are so vivid that the present-day dissolves as you read." Sarah Rayne