Hi all, For those of you researching ancestors who were on stage in London in the mid 1800's, this book is wonderful. It is the diary of one of London's greatest theatre critics with notes by his son and was written IN the 1800's. It details a great many of the shows he saw as well as a good deal of personal information about some of the actors and actresses of the day (or comedians as they were called - funny or not) who played in London (and some provincial) theatres. Because he did the critiques for the paper, it also has obituaries, tragedies and successes of many of them as well as their relatives. It is OLD and you will almost certainly have to get it from your library's archives. The Victorian State Library (Australia) does have a copy. It is obviously a little known and used resource here as, despite it's age, the copy I had still had many pages uncut from the original printing. I am going to write to Rod Neap and see if he can include it in his CD Archives http://www.archivecdbooks.com/main.htm as it really is one of the very best. Please let me (or Rod) know if you would support this as I am sure Rod would need to know if it is going to benefit just one or two or many. Title: The life and reminiscences of E.L. Blanchard : with notes from the diary of Wm. Blanchard by Clement Scott and Cecil Howard. Author / Creator: Blanchard, E. L. (Edward L.), 1820-1889 Imprint / Date: London : Hutchinson, 1891. Subject: Blanchard, William, 1769-1835. Theater --Great Britain--History--19th century. Theater critics --Great Britain--Biography. Other Authors: Scott, Clement, 1841-1904. Howard, Cecil, d. 1895. Best wishes, Mary Mary Rogers <[email protected]> Bendigo Australia