Dr Tim Stanley wrote an article about Fanny & Stella recently in The Telegraph On April 28, 1870, two young gentlemen turned up to the Strand Theatre, London in evening frocks. Ernest Boulton went by the name of Stella and Frederick Park liked to be called Fanny. The behaviour in their box was outlandish and outrageous, …
Tag Archive: gay history
May 06
Fanny And Stella, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, May 4 2013 by Duncan Hall
Following my talk at the Brighton Festival recently, Duncan Hall gave me a glowing review in The Argus. Here it is. If Neil McKenna’s talk had a message it was that gay history is all around, if people are only willing to look. His book Fanny And Stella tells of the scandalous early 1870s …
Apr 02
‘Fanny & Stella… a keyhole to our Victorian past.’ Another great review
Fanny and Stella is a book that acts as a keyhole to our Victorian past that allows readers to spy on the activities and atrocities that occurred during the time of Fanny and Stella. Activities that may be raucous to overly sensitive minds and atrocities that make us both realise how far we have …
Mar 07
How crossdresser was accepted in Victorian Edinburgh – A review of Fanny & Stella in The Scotsman
The following review was published in The Scotsman on Wednesday 6 March 2013 WITH petticoats swishing the ground, blonde tresses artfully curled beneath a bonnet and a small bustle giving the fashionable figure of the day, Stella Boulton’s appearance on Princes Street turned heads. But not all the gasps and curious stares were perhaps for …
Feb 03
Arrested for cross-dressing!
This article by Martha De Lacey appeared on USA-UK Online recently and includes an extract from the book. Meet Fanny and Stella, the Victorian gentlemen who shocked Britain and were prosecuted for the ‘unnatural offence’ of being transvestites Frederick Park, 22, and Ernest Boulton, 21, arrested in 1870 Were leaving Strand Theatre in London on …
Jan 24
Great drag queens of their day – A review of Fanny & Stella by John Preston, London Evening Standard
A review appeared in the London Evening Standard today. John Preston says of the Fanny & Stella You would need to be a very dull — or prim — dog indeed not to find this a terrifically entertaining story. Neil McKenna has thrown himself into it with unfettered glee. If the opportunity arises to describe …
