Not From The Stars

Four-Part Serialized Historical Novel His Majesty’s Theatre Set in Victorian British Society

This wonderful four-part serialized historical novel is perfect for Downton Abbey enthusiasts. Filled with the history of the British theatre and allusions to Shakespeare, His Majesty’s Theatre is set in Victorian England circa 1887 through 1904. The characters come from all echelons of British society, highest to lowest, gay and straight, educated and illiterate, working in the theatre currently named Her Majesty’s, which changes according to the gender of the Monarch. Only working in a theatre could these desperate individuals interact as equals. Professional rivalries, jilted lovers, and finally a murder bring them all together under one roof: His Majesty's Theatre.

Novel Synopsis:

An actor-manager escapes arrest by pretending to marry his leading lady and father her illegitimate child. Together, they harbour a beautiful young heiress escaping a forced marriage.

Yorkshire England 1885.

A woman screams. A doctor pushes metal forceps inside her. Anthony Roundtree, a young landowner, forces a horrified young priest to perform a marriage ceremony. The woman dies as a baby girl is cut from her belly.

London 1889

The theatre-going public believes handsome actor Jeremy O'Connell is married to his stunning leading lady Katherine Stewart. In reality, Jeremy is a spirited homosexual, reveling in underground Edwardian society. When his long-time lover, actor Tommy Quinn, is jailed for gross indecency, Jeremy flees London and tours for three years. Katherine is hired by married actor-manager Eric Bates. They become lovers. Later Eric engages Jeremy. He and Katherine live in counterfeit married bliss and become huge theatre stars. When she becomes pregnant with Eric's child, Jeremy happily claims paternity.

1903.

Bright and beautiful, seventeen-year-old Elisa Roundtree longs for adventure and romance. She lives in a society where women are allowed neither. Anthony Roundtree is a cruel father, brutally punishing even minor offences. He betrothed her at birth to the now elderly, equally sadistic, Sir John Garingham. Unhappy with her fate, but imagining no alternative, Elisa accepts her future marriage as an early death. Her final, glorious months of freedom are spent at boarding school. Her handsome young art-master, Robert Dennison, paints her portrait as part of an exhibit he will be giving in London. When she tells him she must marry a man who terrifies her, he persuades her to run away and audition for His Majesty’s Theatre, in London.

Book Two: But From Thine Eyes 

London, Friday, December 18, 1903.

Now an actor-manager, Jeremy O’Connell has leased His Majesty’s Theatre while the resident company is touring America. Elisa auditions and is accepted as an unpaid apprentice. Her name is changed to Elly Fielding. Sent to live at a theatrical boardinghouse, she revels in this world of passionate, talented, often brash, and bawdy actors. Jeremy adores his life as a "husband and father" and wants to marry Katherine, for real. When her childhood sweetheart, actor Simon Camden, returns to London, Jeremy’s private world is threatened. Twenty-year-old Rory Cook fled a stifling academic life at Oxford to become an actor. He hero-worships Jeremy, and falls in love with beautiful Elly. Rory’s former lover, slum girl Peg McCarthy, wants Rory back and swears vengeance on Elly. A rich theatre patron, Isabelle, Lady Richfield, takes Elly under her wing. Lady Richfield’s friend, American reporter Sam Smelling: “The Man With The Nose For News,” discovers that Elly is the heiress of a large estate. If she marries before she turns twenty-one, the estate becomes a dowry, and property of her husband. Robert Dennison’s exhibition opens in London. They fear Elly may be recognized from her wonderful portrait, but Elly puts his needs above her own. She refuses to have the painting withdrawn. On her way to rehearsal, Elly is brutally abducted and taken to Yorkshire to marry Sir John Garingham.

Book Three: Truth and Beauty

Lady Richfield’s solicitors discover that Elly’s real father is Charles Roundtree, Anthony Roundtree’s older brother. Charles was murdered for his estate. Charles’s wife, Elly’s mother, was forced to marry Anthony on her deathbed, minutes before giving birth to Elly. When Elly is discovered missing, Lady Richfield calls Scotland Yard. The chase is on. Peg McCarthy and Tommy Quinn have engineered Elly's abduction. Dragged back to her Yorkshire home, Sir John Garingham threatens to murder her unless she signs the marriage license. The elderly priest called to perform the ceremony was the young priest who married Elly’s mother to her uncle, moments before Elly’s birth. The priest refuses to marry Elly against her will, and Anthony Roundtree shoots him dead. During the scuffle, Elly pushes Lord Garingham out a window. He is killed in the fall. To protect Elly from prosecution, everyone says that Garingham’s death is accidental. Elly is returned to London, injured in mind and body. Her new legal guardians become Lord and Lady Richfield. Elly now lives in luxury, rehearses at the theatre, but suffers excruciating nightmares. Jeremy O'Connell leads her through a sort of psychodrama, exorcising her fears and allowing her to perform on stage. Her new-found happiness is overshadowed by the reminder that she may be called as a witness at Anthony Roundtree's trial, for murdering the priest.

Book Four: Beauty’s Doom

Surrounded by wealth beyond her imagination, Elly balances the worlds of mannered, hypocritical London society, and brash but honest theatre people. All this time, Anthony Roundtree has been in a Yorkshire jail, awaiting the circuit judge. When he finally reaches Yorkshire, Elly is forced to go back and testify. The jury determines that the priest was shot intentionally. Anthony Roundtree is hanged. Sir John Garingham’s accidental death is questioned. Elly is arrested for his murder and taken to Holloway Prison. Conditions bring her to near madness. Her defense attorney is Sir Douglas Tanner, actor Rory Cook’s aging law professor from Oxford. Sir Douglas suffers a minor heart attack and they must choose between two impossibilities: 1. Indefinitely postpone the trial and leave Elly in prison, or, 2. Let Elly give up the right to council, publicly dismiss her barrister, and handle her own defense. They devise a plan. Elly will defend herself, with clandestine help. Since Rory has a working knowledge of the law, but no accreditation, he will cue her. Sir Douglas will sit apart, within Rory’s view, and signal with prearranged gestures. After a crash course, with Sir Douglas lecturing on the law, and Jeremy O’Connell scripting Elly’s questions for the witnesses, Elly braves the fury of a judge who is horrified that a woman would dare to defend herself. Believing Elly is guilty, and furious he is missing a golf match, the judge wants her sent to the gallows. Unprecedented press attention and excellent witnesses bring this four-book series to a thrilling conclusion.

About the author: Christina Britton Conroy is a classically trained singer and actor who has toured the globe singing operas, operettas, and musicals, as well as being a Certified Music Therapist and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. She has published several books, and Not From The Stars marks the first in the four-book His Majesty’s Theatre series.