The World and His Wife
By Stephen Wyatt
ISBN: 9781837915156
What Started as a Love Match lit the fire of a Thirty-year War.
In 1828, the beautiful Rosina Wheeler married one of Victorian England’s most successful and prolific writers, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. What followed shocked and entertained the public for over thirty years.
What Started as a Love Match lit the fire of a Thirty-year War.
In 1828, the beautiful Rosina Wheeler married one of Victorian England’s most successful and prolific writers, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. What followed shocked and entertained the public for over thirty years.
After their marriage broke down, Rosina refused to be silenced. She pursued her husband with a single-minded and very public crusade to prove she was in the right. She even interrupted her husband’s election campaign to denounce him to the assembled voters. Edward responded by threatening to have her committed to a lunatic asylum. But that was only the beginning.
The novel draws freely on Edward and Rosina’s own words. Both have a convincing story to tell – except that they disagree about everything.
“This account of the peculiar hell of an unhappy Victorian marriage is an exhilarating read."
Katherine Mezzacappa
Historical Novel Society rev
“Stephen Wyatt's wit, erudition and mastery of narrative are ideally suited to this corking tale of twisted love, obsession and revenge.”
Andrew Cartmel
author of the best-selling Vinyl Detective series and co-author of 'The Rivers of London' comic books.
“A masterpiece of a mismatched Victorian marriage - read it! And laugh and weep at the same time.”
Christie Dickason
whose many historical novels include 'The Dragon Riders', 'The Firemaster’s Mistress' and 'The Noble Assassin'
“Wyatt's research is faultless. But the book's greatest joy is Wyatt's recreation of the two central voices.”
Jasper Barry
author of ‘The Second Groom’ and ‘That Deplorable Boy.'
Stephen Wyatt
Stephen Wyatt is an award-winning writer for radio, theatre and television.
Highlights include: creating two Classic Doctor Who stories, Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy; winning the Tinniswood Award for best original radio script twice for Memorials to the Missing and Gerontius; working with Patrick Stewart on Double Jeopardy and Strangers on a Film, two plays about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood; co-writing with Nic Rowley After Shave, an all-female musical revue seen briefly in the West End; writing a ground-breaking gay comedy Told Look Younger for Jermyn Street Theatre; providing the libretto to The Devil in the Belfry, an unfinished opera by Debussy; dramatising Dante’s The Divine Comedy for radio and creating for AUK Me and Him and Who about the last years of Dr Who producer, John Nathan-Turner.