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Discover the spellbinding portrait of two women determined to find their freedom – perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Doll Factory and The Essex Serpent.
England, 1895: In the bustling seaside town of Brighton, photography is all the rage. Ellen Harper assists her twin brother running one of the city’s seafront studios, where fashionable ladies and gentlemen pose in their finery to have their likeness captured forever in a silver frame. But behind the façade of a respectable business, the siblings have something to hide. After the studio closes for the day, secret photographs are taken in the back room. There is money to be made from this underground trade, but if exposed to the light of day, these photographs would destroy them…
When newly married Clementine comes to sit for a portrait, Ellen learns she is looking for a lady’s companion. Longing for a life of her own choosing and freedom from the deals her brother has made, Ellen accepts the post. The new position transports her to a sweeping white-fronted townhouse on one of Brighton’s most prestigious crescents, full of every luxury imaginable. But Clementine’s gilded world hides as much darkness as Ellen hoped to escape… What will happen when the secrets Ellen has left behind finally catch up to her?
Don’t miss this richly atmospheric and gripping historical fiction shining a light on the role of women in a world dominated by men.
This book was first published in hardback as The Golden Hour.
My thanks to Graeme of Graeme Williams Marketing for the tour invite to celebrate the paperback publication. The Secret Photographs is published by Hodder & Stoughton, in ebook, audiobook and hardback formats earlier in the year, with the paperback and its new title on 3 October 2024. I’m grateful to Jacquie for providing the fascinating guest post below to start off the tour today.
GUEST POST
Five things you didn’t know about Victorian ‘secret’ photography!
by Jacquie Bloese
1) Holywell Street
‘…the cocked dog’s leg of Holywell Street, accessible from the Strand by way of a foul-smelling alleyway in which bodily fluids are expelled and exchanged on a nightly basis…’
– The Secret Photographs
In late-Victorian Britain, as photographic processes simplified and equipment became lighter and cheaper, the underground trade in erotic photography accelerated. Photographs were available via mail order from anonymous PO boxes, from curio shops … and certain booksellers.
Holywell Street, known as Booksellers’ Row, just off The Strand, in London, was notorious for its selection of obscene publications and photographs and equally notorious for frequent raids by the police. By 1901, Holywell Street had been demolished but as we know, the trade continued to flourish.
2) The models
To many Victorians, the women who modelled for nude photographs were no better than prostitutes. And although the majority of the models would doubtless have kept their source of income secret, census records from the 1880s show that several women listed their occupation as ‘artist’s model’, the implication being that they would pose either naked or with drapes for artists at venerable institutions such as the Royal Academy.
When chronicler of the working classes, social reformer Henry Mayhew asked a young women who made envelopes if he might take a photograph of her carrying out her task, her response is revealing.
“With my clothes down, Sir?” she asked.
3) Public school scandal
In the 1880s, a distressed headmaster from a top public school contacted Scotland Yard. Certain boys had been receiving erotic photographs from an anonymous source, smuggled into the school as “Art Supplies”. Inspector Brennan was put onto the case and traced the provenance of the photographs to a bookshop in Holywell Street, in London (see point 1!).
4) ‘Living statues’ and body stockings
The music hall craze for living statues – or tableaux vivants – was at its height in the 1890s. To get past the censors, young women posed on plinths in flesh-coloured body stockings, mimicking poses from classical sculpture or popular works of art. Social purity groups did their best to ban the tableaux – but without success.
5) Secret agents
Of course, much of Victorian polite society was most definitely not amused by the decline in moral standards. The National Vigilance Association was one such group, founded in 1885, and active for over 60 years. Their primary mission was to protect young women from the dangers of prostitution, although activity extended to combing libraries for inappropriate reading material, and campaigning to ban the more salacious music hall acts. They even had agents across the country, who were sent to spy on ‘unruly’ houses and suspicious individuals.
Jacquie is a writer of historical book group fiction, originally from the Channel Island of Guernsey. She draws her inspiration from atmospheric locations with intriguing histories, and people – both real and imaginary – whose stories are calling out to be told.
Her first novel THE FRENCH HOUSE, set during the German Occupation of Guernsey in the second World War, was a Richard and Judy Winter 2022 book club pick, and a finalist in the Mslexia Novel Award. Her second novel THE GOLDEN HOUR is inspired by the seaside town of Brighton, where Jacquie currently lives, and tells the story of three women from different classes who become caught up in the underground world of erotic photography in 1890s Victorian England.
Jacquie began her professional life teaching English, in Turkey and Spain, before returning to the UK to work in ELT publishing for a number of publishers, including Scholastic, Oxford University Press and Penguin Random House. She now works freelance as an educational consultant, writer and editor.
In her spare time, Jacquie loves reading, walking, socialising with old friends and new, exploring new places & re-visiting old favourites, theatre, cinema, spending time in London, travel and daydreaming!
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