The Real Mackay
Walter Scott’s Favourite Comedian
28th May, 2024
Night after night jostling crowds clamour for entry to Edinburgh’s Theatre Royal with one name on their lips: the Real Mackay. But who is he? The answer leaps off the page in this meticulously researched historical novel which plunges the reader into the weird and wonderful golden era of Scottish national drama, seen through the eyes of Charles Mackay and his family. Walter Scott’s favourite comedian dazzles and delights packed audiences across nineteenth-century Scotland for decades, bringing laughter to thousands, including the king. But behind his hilarious stage antics is a man grieving for the women he loses, all of them dying tragically young – his mother, his wife, his daughter. In the grip of unstoppable momentum, his extraordinary popularity casting long shadows over those he loves, will he be forced to choose between fame and family?
- ISBN:9781805143192
- eISBN:9781805147862
- Paperback RRP: £9.99
Paperback available to order from all good bookshops and libraries in the UK and worldwide on Amazon and various other sites - E-books and Audiobooks available inline in all the usual places
Disappearing Acts
The Real Mackay's Granddaughter
PUBLICATION 2026
Orphaned at five, Lottie inhabited a magical world of stories in the care of her grandfather, a famous comic actor, until he died. Adrift without him, she lurches from one idea to the next, taking risks, keeping secrets, eloping with an actor at seventeen. A game of wits ensues, each vying for control in a world of comedy, illusions, and sleight of hand as they tour the length and breadth of the country till tragedy strikes and the future is suddenly impossible to imagine.