Wicked Company

Publisher: Random House/ Bantam, 1992: reprint, 2000; Reissued by Sourcebooks Landmark in October, 2010.

ISBN: 9781402222719

Fiction

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Based on the lives of ‘lost’ women playwrights seeking fame and glory at the rival theatres Covent Garden and Drury Lane in the period 1761-1779, bookseller’s daughter Sophie McGann forsakes her native Scotland –hidden in James Boswell’s traveling trunk–to pursue her dream of being a playwright at Old Drury. But the reality of London is hasher than Sophie could have imagined, leaving her with her work stolen, her profits withheld, and the chances of a “petticoat playwright” getting past the government censor slim. Sophie’s friend and would-be lover Hunter Robertson is himself building a name as an actor and singer at Covent Garden, a rival theater. Constantly at odds over issues of loyalty and professional jealousy, Sophie and Hunter’s careers veer wildly from Edinburgh to London to Dublin to Bath, and from success to disaster.  Likewise, their relationship careens from tumultuous to an impasse, until…

“In her second novel, Ware again proves she can intertwine fact and fiction to create an entertaining and harmonious whole, offering a fascinating portrayal of London’s theatrical milieu, with characters such as [government censor Edward] Capell, Garrick and Frances Sheridan–mother of Richard Brinsley and a playwright herself–convincingly drawn from history.”

Publisher’s Weekly

“From the award-winning author of Island of the Swans comes a rich, engrossing tale set in 18th century London’s bawdy Drury Lane.”

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