Bright Particular Stars

Bright Particular Stars takes its readers on a journey to uncover the people and events that have excited, enthralled, transformed, shocked and lit up the lives of otherwise plain places across Great Britain. From the eighteenth century to the present day, David McKie leads us through four centuries of scandal, upheaval and transformation at the hands of the famous and not so famous individuals who have disturbed and inspired their fellow Britons in equal measure. Read of G.F. Muntz, who with the help of Queen Victoria engendered the cult of the long shaggy beard, walk alongside Adelaide Proctor, who was attended by angels in Great Conram Steet, Bloomsbury; meet Ralph Ward Jackson, who built a Northern Town where none stood before, severely upsetting his neighbours, and join Willie Gallacher and Abe Moffat, volcanoes of advanced thinking, who achieved a temporary triumph of Communism in Fife. In Bright Particular Stars, quiet, unassuming streetscapes are transformed into beguiling, eccentric and uproarious sites of action which - through the eyes of David McKie - are once more filled with the great triumphs and failures of the heroes, heroines and villains that have each, in their own way, shaped Great Britain.