Mark Melford, actor and author in Queen Victoria's England, was a prolific writer for the legitimate stage, a master of the twenty-minute music hall sketch, and an adventurer in the emerging world of British silent filmmaking. This is the biography of a self-confessed crank and occasional genius living through a vibrant period of British theatre-a time of great social, technological and political change. A history of the times unfolds from the perspective of one who made the most of his eclectic talents. Meet the people who shared Mark's life: the fascinating characters he met while playing in a North Country travelling booth theatre, the intrepid women theatre managers he worked with, and the hardworking yet glamorous music hall stars who shared the stage with him. You are invited to become a member of the audience at Covent Garden in 1877, to join Mark on the darkest of nights in a Midhurst poorhouse, to experience the perils of early motoring, and to discover a life spent behind the footlights.