George Honey - Vocalist, Comedian and Actor (1822 to 1880)

“One of the most genuine and unexaggerated examples of pure humour the modern stage has witnessed”

“Highly finished from first to last”

“… delivered his words with a quaintness that quite took the audience by surprise.  Such a success as he achieved last night is enough to make an epoch in an actor's career”

“An English comedian of great repute”

The reviews above are the sort that most theatrical performers would give their eyeteeth to receive and the recipient in this case was George Honey, an actor and singer buried in Highgate Cemetery East.  George was gifted with not only a beautiful singing voice but great comedic timing and was one of the most popular comedic stage actors of the latter part of the 19^th Century.

Born on 22 May 1822, George found a job as a call-boy at the Adelphi Theatre in 1843, aged 21, and was soon given the part of the singing mouse as part of a comedy duet in Harlequin Blue Beard.  Five years later he debuted as Pan in Midas at the Princess’s Theatre and a review of his later performance in G.A. MacFarren’s Robin Hood noted that George had “rendered valuable assistance both by his comic acting and excellent singing”.

George’s career went from strength to strength and between 1850 and 1851, he performed in a number of comedy operas at the Adelphi:

Character	Production	Run
Widgeon	Disowned	24 Mar 1851 - 2 Apr 1851
Gil	Giralda	27 May 1851 - 31 May 1851
Signor Pantalon	Good Night, Signor Pantalon	29 May 1851 - 23 Aug 1851
Muster Grinnidge	Green Bushes	24 Jul 1851 - 22 Sep 1851
Jukes	Jessie Gray	18 Nov 1850 - 24 Jan 1851
Sharp	Married Bachelor	15 Oct 1850 - 22 Mar 1851
Bob	Night of Horrors	12 Jun 1851 - 5 Jul 1851
Jack the Linnet	O'Flannigan and the Fairies	21 Apr 1851 - 24 May 1851
Jacob	Road to Ruin	16 Jul 1851
Puggs	Shocking Events	7 Jul 1851 - 11 Jul 1851
Mazourki	Taming a Tartar	25 Aug 1851 - 17 Sep 1851
Sanquineo	La Tarantula	26 Dec 1850 - 26 Feb 1851

Incidentally, a number of the abovementioned operas that George performed in were under the direction of Louisa Pyne and William Harrison of the Pyne & Harrison English Opera Company, which was the most successful English travelling opera troupe in the United States in the 1850s.  The company later returned to London and Louisa Pyne appears to have been instrumental in the formation of the Royal English Opera Company.  She was also the second woman to ever win the Royal Philharmonic Society's Beethoven Gold Medal for her contribution towards opera and was hugely respected and admired both in the UK and across the pond.

Louisa Pyne

As for the Adelphi Theatre, it was noted by the London Times as being "the most popular theatre of the metropolis" with the "best company in London for its purpose” in the summer of 1851.  It’s also said that The Adelphi had the honour of being one of the first, if not the first, theatres to stage adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens.  So not only was George rubbing shoulders with some of the most well respected directors and performers within the industry, he was also performing in one of the most popular theatres in London at the time!

The Old Adelphi Theatre

Success in the UK

Quite a number of later characters that George took to portraying were drunken, eccentric and slightly damaged, including a less-than-honest lawyer in Miriam’s Crime (1863), Turco the Terrible in William’s Brough’s Prince Amabel (1865) and Annibal Locust, a boozy sergeant, in Huguenot Captain (1866).

George as Biles in Miriam's Crime

His acting was described by Peter Fitzgerald as being “of the old broad, boisterous, exaggerated style” and Tom Robertson was initially reluctant to cast George as Eccles in Caste (1867) because he felt that George’s over-the-top style would clash with the subtler performances he’d established at the Prince of Wales theatre.  As it turned out, George’s overstated ‘old school’ style was just the tonic required to bring Eccles to life, and George’s very funny portrayal was a thunderous success that ensured the character was only ever associated with his name thereafter.

George as Eccles

George’s later portrayal of Major Buncombe in Andrew Halliday's For Love or Money (1870) at the Globe also won him great acclaim and he went on to receive even more praise and recognition playing Cheviot Hill in W. S. Gilbert's Engaged (1877) at the Haymarket.

(Incidentally, George’s professional reputation had soared by the 1870s and as a result, his financial situation had improved dramatically: when he first played Eccles back in 1867, he was receiving £18 per week.  Four years later, when Caste was revived, he was earning £60 a week.  According to the VictorianWeb currency convertor, this amounts to £3,900 a week - A WEEK - in today’s currency!)

Success in the US

George travelled to New York in 1875, where his portrayal of Eccles at Wallack’s Theatre was “admired and praised on all hands”.  In fact, George’s obituary in the New York Times described his portrayal of Eccles as “inimitable” and noted that George had produced “a remarkable and lasting effect”.  The Era (14 May 1876 edition) reported that his tour of the US had been a “brilliant success” and, in playing Major Buncombe in "For Love or Money" (the first time the play had ever been seen in the United States), the Cambridge Chronicle (11 September edition) reported that he remained at the Boston Globe for a “series of star performances” for the rest of his stay in America. 

Wallack's Theatre

George’s naturally quick wit occasionally presented itself in unscripted moments on stage, much to the delight of the audience.  The following recollection comes from Lady Marie Bancroft (nee Wilton) in which she recalled one such incident during a performance of Orpheus.  A horse race had taken place earlier on in the day, with the winning horse called Black Deer:

“In the evening, George Honey, who was playing Black King Pluto introduced an unexpected joke in my scene with him: “Saucy boy!  You’ve been to the races, it is clear.”  I was taken by surprise but soon recovered, and replied, “Yes, and was a winner, too, you Black Dear.”  The audience at once recognised the introduction, and received it with much laughter and applause.  Mr Honey, seeing that I had the best of it, added, “Oh, so I thought: well, long may you reign, dear.”  This, being done on the spur of the moment, was more successful than if it had been pre-arranged.”

Lady Marie Bancroft

Personal Life

I attempted to locate George’s birth certificate and any other associated documentation that pertained to his parents and/or family, but was unable to source anything due to the fact that birth registrations in the UK only became necessary in 1837 (unfortunately for me, George was born in 1822 so 15 years too early to be registered).

However, I did come across an intriguing clue about George’s early life on the biography of another Victorian actress called Laura Agnes Stevenson.  Her mother was the celebrated actress and singer Laura Honey (one of many aliases that daughter Laura used) although neither appear to have been related to George.  However, Laura Honey (daughter) and George performed together in a number of plays at the Adelphi (The Married Bachelor, Jessie Gray, The Disowned, Giralda and Good Night, Signor Pantalon).

This same biography claimed that George was actually born George Alfred Dryland and on the Adelphi Theatre’s calendar for 1850/1851, George’s name is shown as being George A. Honey.  Also, in the Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries (Volume 38), George is referred to as George Alfred Honey.  So I followed this up and, courtesy of Ancestry.com, found one George Alfred Dryland who was baptised in Lambeth on 17 September 1823.  If this is indeed the very same George, it would’ve made him 16-months old at the time of the baptism.

Intriguingly, I came across an excerpt from a book called Avowals by George Moore (described by Google Books as being “a volume of conversational memoirs by Moore, who was a significant member of the Irish Literary Revival in the early 1900s”).  On page 50, Moore reminisces about seeing Money at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1869):

“Another great event of my youth, and of yours too, Gosse, I'm sure, was Money, at the Old Prince of Wales' Theatre, when the Bancrofts owned it.  Do you remember Coghlan and Miss Foote in the act in which the will is read, as good an act of comedy as ever was written if it resembles my memory of it.  If you have forgotten it I never have, nor a certain short front scene, played by George Honey and his wife.”

Could George have been married?  Or could Mr Moore have possibly been referring to George's character's wife, perhaps?  I was intrigued by this statement because while researching George, I hadn't come across one solitary suggestion or confirmation about his marital status anywhere at the time of posting.  That's not to say that George never married and it's certainly worthy of investigation (I shall post any discoveries made in this regard as/if they present themselves). 

Regarding George's interests outside the theatre, I stumbled across the following article in the 17 February 1875 edition of the Worcestershire Chronicle that suggests George might’ve had some involvement with the Freemasons:

[A CARD.]

BROTHER GEORGE HONEY

(COMEDIAN)

Takes this opportunity of THANKING the

FREEMASONS of WORCESTOR for their

PATRONAGE and PRESENCE upon the occasion of

His (RETURN) VISIT to the THEATRE ROYAL, on

FRIDAY LAST, FEB 12th

Acting Manager

                                     C.K. FURTADO

I wanted to confirm this so contacted Diane Clements, the Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry.  Diane advised that while the Freemasons occasionally sponsored events and performances for their members, this didn’t necessarily mean that the performer was a member of the organisation themselves.  I then subsequently came across an article from The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine and Review (26th February 1870) that appeared to confirm George's involvement within the Masons and commends George and one of his fellow brothers on their excellent singing following their initiation.  However, one of Diane's colleagues contacted me a short while later to advise that while George had certainly performed for the organisation, they have absolutely no record confirming him as being a member.  

Ill Health and Death

There was something almost Tommy Cooper-esque about the stroke that George suffered during his final entrance of the 1879 revival of Caste at the Prince of Wales. 

Marie Bancroft, who played the part of Polly, was present as George collapsed backstage.  The scene at the end of Act 1 centred on Eccles’ inebriated return to the stage and Miss Bancroft supported George (literally and figuratively) after his collapse by rattling a door and impersonating Eccles cursing, while physically holding the stricken actor up in the doorway (all while the audience applauded and laughed as the act-drop fell).  The good news was that, unlike Tommy Cooper, George didn’t die from this stroke.  The bad news was that the incident pretty much ended George’s career and the only theatrical appearances he made thereafter were minor parts for benefits.  George died on 28 May 1880 following an aneurism of the heart.

George is buried on the East side of Highgate Cemetery on a small pathway to the right of the main pathway, near Chester Gate (look out for Ann Jewson Crisp's monument featuring her dog Emporer).    

The right of burial was granted to Emily Honey of 127 Camden Road on 29 May 1880 at a cost of £6.6.0 and ownership was never transferred.  George is the only person buried there and was interred on 01 June 1880.  Interestingly, the location of the plot was chosen by Highgate Cemetery on behalf of George's family and the monument is on the right as you walk down the pathway.  It's an upright rectangular pinkish stone with a white oval medallion featuring a (very accurate) relief of George’s face.  The inscription reads:

IN MEMORY OF GEORGE HONEY

COMEDIAN

DIED MAY 28 1880

AGED 58 YEARS

ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS

AND FELLOW WORKERS

In just about every one of his obituaries and reviews I’ve come across, George was described as being a very popular and talented performer and his professional career lasted for a very successful 32 years.

Copyright © Sam Perrin June 2013

  

Sources:

Justin Bickersteth, Registrar, Highgate Cemetery
Ancestry.com

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp88534/george-honey

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Honey,_George_(DNB00)

http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=13660&back=

http://content.lib.sfu.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ceww/id/318/rec/411

The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre, edited by Kerry Powell

http://imslp.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(Macfarren,_George_Alexander)

Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825-60 By Katherine K. Preston

http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/vexhibit/_THEME_Portrait_19thc_Opera_01/6/17/705520886123040645792793/

http://www.umass.edu/AdelphiTheatreCalendar/m50d.htm

http://www.victorianoperanorthwest.org/Operas/RobinHood.htm

The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume 6: 1850-1852 by Charles Dickens

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rogers/Genealogy/TheatricalDeaths.html#1880_-_1889

http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/view/all/what/Honey,%20George,%201822-1880,%20depicted.?os=0&pgs=50

http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/butler&CISOPTR=922&CISOBOX=1&REC=7

Players and Performances in the Victorian Theatre by George Taylor

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/index.php

Annals of the Liverpool Stage, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time by R. J. Broadbent

Victoria Magazine, Volume 9 by Emily Faithfull

Diane Clements, Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine and Review, 26^th February 1870
The National Portrait Gallery

The Freeman’s Journal, 10^th July 1858

The Worcestershire Chronicle, 17^th Feb 1875

Cambridge Chronicle, 11^th September 1875

The Glasgow Herald, 29^th May 1880

The New York Times, 30^th May 1880

The Hastings Family

The Hastings’ family grave generally isn’t included on tours of Highgate Cemetery west but Dorothy Hastings' headstone is listed by English Heritage so I thought I'd share some information about her and her family:

William Granville Hastings and Florence Edith Keyzar married in Lambeth in 1890.  William was a sculptor who’d studied at Lambeth Art School and was later employed by Doulton as a modeller and designer, his specialities being classical and renaissance vases.  In 1889 the promising ceramicist was awarded first prize for one of his vases by the very prestigious Society of Arts and from there his career went from strength to strength: by 1889 he’d moved to Paris to work with Dalou and then went on to create a series of bas reliefs for the Edison Company illustrating the history of the phonograph.  In 1891, he accepted a fantastic opportunity to work as designer and sculptor for the esteemed Gorham Manufacturing Company in Rhode Island NY.  After arriving in Providence on 12 May 1892, he was joined by Florence, their first son Warren Granville and his brother (Richard) three months later.

William Granville Hastings

In 1893, the Hastings family welcomed another son into the world, William John, who was followed by Charles Henry in 1894.  The following year, on 05 February, Florence gave birth to a baby girl, Dorothy Florence, in Rhode Island.

The 1900 census records 5-year old Dorothy (known to her family as Dody) as living with her parents and brothers at 239 Morningside Avenue, Manhattan, New York.  However two short years later in 1902, tragedy struck and William Senior died suddenly in Mount Vernon.  His obituary in the New York Times stated that he’d succumbed to cancer of the stomach, aged just 34.

Florence and the children returned to London.  The years following William Senior’s death must have been incredibly difficult for them, both emotionally and financially, but was all too common when the head (and chief breadwinner) of any family passed away.  By the time the 1911 census was undertaken, the family had split up and were living in different locations.  Those who were able to find work did so:

Dorothy, then aged 16, was listed as being a ‘child’s companion’ while her two older brothers (William John, 18, and Charles Henry, 17) were noted as being ‘domestic gardener’ and ‘printer’s compositor’ respectively.  The three siblings lived together at 9 Carlingford Road in Hampstead.  Their mum, Florence, had taken a live-in job as a nurse to an elderly lady called Kate Bedford Raven at 212a West End Lane in Hampstead.  The youngest son (Donald Pierre, aged 11) was living in Watford under the care of the London Orphan Asylum, a charitable organisation that cared for children who had lost one or both of their parents.  I can’t find any documentation confirming where Warren Granville, the eldest, or Alfred Donald, the second youngest, were living or with whom at this time.  Alfred was 13 in 1911 – could it have been possible that he too was under the care of the London Orphan Asylum or another similar institution?

Three years later the wheels of World War I were set in motion and fate dealt another blow to the Hastings family.  Charles Henry enlisted and by 1916 was serving as a Private in the Royal Fusiliers’ 10th Battalion.  He was stationed in France and found himself in Gommecourt Salient, a small village en route to Calais.  Unfortunately, Gommecourt was on the frontline of the hostilities in that area and Charles was killed during fierce fighting in a nearby wood, aged just 22.  He, along with the 73,000 other servicemen who lost their lives there, is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

Charles Henry Hastings

As an adult, Dorothy found work as a travelling sales woman within the fashion industry (her occupation is listed as “Commercial Traveller (Ladies’ Gowns)” on her death certificate) and had moved from Hampstead to nearby Hendon.  On 09 September 1932, Dorothy was admitted to hospital to have an abscess on her appendix drained but things didn’t go according to plan.  On 23 September, aged 37, she died in St George’s Hospital, the cause of death being a cerebral embolism resulting from the operation.

I’d imagine that her last couple of weeks were spent in agonising pain and while she never married or had children, at least she wasn’t alone when she died: her younger brother, Alfred Ronald, was by her side when she passed away.

Dorothy Hastings’ monument is a very beautiful art deco relief, in which her face is framed by a bobbed hairstyle that was so fashionable in the early 1930s.  Her arms are crossed upwards in front of her and to the left is a large lily and drapery.  To the right are three strands of wheat and above her head is a bird in flight.  The material used is cast concrete and it was listed by English Heritage on 11 January 1999.  The monument was designed and created by Dorothy’s youngest brother, Donald Pierre (a promising sculptor in his own right) and the inscription reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF DOROTHY HASTINGS

DIED 23 SEPT 1932

Donald’s own blossoming sculpting career was cut short after he, by horrible coincidence, died following an appendectomy six years later in 1938.  He’s buried in the same plot as Dorothy, along with their mother Florence (who had until her death in 1940 outlived her husband and three of her six children), Donald’s wife Clara and their son Julian.  The inscription on the footstone reads:

DONALD PIERRE HASTINGS

SCULPTOR OF THIS HEADSTONE

DIED OCT. 23 1938 IN HIS 39TH YEAR

BELOVED FATHER, HUSBAND AND SON

FLORENCE EDITH HASTINGS

HIS DEAR MOTHER

3RD DEC. 1871 – 8TH JULY 1940

PHYLLIS CLARA CURTIS

HIS MUCH LOVED WIFE

14TH JUNE 1899 – 9TH DECEMBER 1992

JULIAN FREDERICK GRANVILLE HASTINGS - ARCHITECT

DEAR FATHER, HUSBAND, BROTHER AND SON

29TH JAN. 1930 – 2ND OCT. 2002

(Incidentally Donald's daughter, Eveline Dorothy (an artist), was named in memory of her mother's aunt Eveline and her father's sister, Dorothy Florence)

Further Notes on the Artistic Talents of William Granville and Donald Pierre Hastings:

William Granville

William’s first commission after moving to the US was to design works for display at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.  He then created a number of public statues, including four Abraham Lincoln sculptures in Bunker Hill (Illinois), Sioux City and Jefferson (Iowa) and Cincinnati (Ohio).  He also created Liberty Arming the Patriot in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, as well as the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment Monument on the Chickamauga National Battlefield.

The company that employed William Senior, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, was one of the biggest American manufacturers of elegant and highly prized silverware, as well as being a foundry for bronze sculpture.  It must have been incredibly exciting for William to have been offered a job in America working for such a well-respected company at the young age of 23.  But then to be fair, Gorham were lucky to have acquired such a talented employee as William Granville Hastings!

William Senior was an enthusiastic member of the Providence Art Club and served on the Board of Managers between 1895 and 1898.  Records show that he was Chair of the Friday Night Entertainments committee, he regularly exhibited his art at the club and took it upon himself to oversee 'the unique and artistic decoration of the Grill Room'.  He appears to have been a rather charismatic individual and people who knew him remembered him as being “a picturesque character and an entertaining fireside speaker”.

Donald Pierre

Artistic talent appears to have run in the family but it almost never happened for Donald, whose sculpting career only really took off after he lost his office job working as a representative for a company called Compton’s, where he was tasked with overseeing the Officers Training Cadets’ account.  This redundancy was the shot in the arm he needed to pursue his passion full time and for the remaining nine years of his life, he produced an impressive body of work including:

• a set of Stations of the Cross for St Wilfrid's Church in Brighton (his first commission);
• a roundel relief portrait of Catherine Gladstone on one of the three-sides of the Gladstone Memorial Fountain in Flintshire, Wales, which commemorates the marriage of Catherine and Sir William;
• Various ecclesiastical pieces in the Church of Our Lady, St. Alphege's at Bath, St. Nicholas's, Kingsway in Manchester, St. Paul's in Haringey (consisting of seven figures, including two angels, St. Paul, St. John and St. Mellitus);
• A commission by Tussards to do a series of heads, including the jockey Gordon Richards;
• An ambitious exhibition entitled 50 Celebrity Portrait Busts, which he held at the New Burlington Art Gallery in 1934, for which he persuaded an impressive variety of personalities to be his subjects, including Flora Robson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Ivor Novello, Ralph Lynn; Fred Perry, Bunny Austin, George Lansbury MP, Sir Stafford Cripps; John Drinkwater, Walter de la Mare, T.S. Eliot, Sir Malcolm Campbell, Gordon Richards and Eileen Joyce.

Donald with some of his modelling subjects

The sculptor Nigel Boonham regarded Donald as being a leader in the movement of semi-trained amateur sculptors operating professionally in the last century and some of his work is housed in the Leeds City Art Gallery collection, as well stored in the V&A.  Donald was passionate about Highgate Village and became the Secretary of the Highgate Preservation Society in 1938.

Copyright © Sam Perrin May 2013

All family photographs (with the exception of Dorothy's headstone and the family footstone) are the property of Ken Hastings, who has been incredibly generous in sharing this information about his family with me.  Thanks Ken!

Sources:

Ancestry.com

Ken Hastings

Glynis Hastings via http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__6594_path__0p115p187p951p.aspx

The Henry Moore Institute’s Archive Catalogue: (http://217.204.55.154/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=RefNo=='2002.63'&dsqDb=Catalog&PF=Yes)

Askart.com: (http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=10023674)

http://www.askart.com/askart/h/william_granville_hastings/william_granville_hastings.aspx

V&A: (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68867/sculpture-hastings-donald/)

British Listed Buildings: (http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-478257-monument-to-dorothy-hastings-in-highgate)

Death List of the Day, NY Times, 16 June 1902:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20E1FFC3E5911738DDDAC0994DE405B828CF1D3

Bram Stoker vs "The Highgate Vampire"

A number of years ago, a friend gave me a copy of SeΆn Manchester’s book, “The Highgate Vampire” to read as it was something that had popped up on the internet occasionally when I'd been doing my own historical research about the cemetery.  As the title implies, the book is Manchester’s account of an alleged malicious vampiric presence that plagued Highgate Cemetery in the late 1960s / early 1970s and details Manchester’s role in ridding the world of it.

I’d come across many an online review from visitors who’ve been reprimanded by past Highgate guides for asking about vampires, ghosts and other supernatural entities so I decided to read Manchester’s book and see what all the fuss was about.

The second chapter details Manchester’s introduction to the Highgate Vampire case and it was when I reached page 23 that a simple description used by Manchester leapt out at me.  The phrase described the face of a creature allegedly seen lurking in the cemetery and it dawned on me that I’d read the description somewhere but just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  The phrase was “and upon the face was an expression of basilisk horror”.  Despite this little mental niggle, I continued to read.

It was when I got to Manchester’s discovery of the vampire on page 55 that the pennies started to drop and they did so en masse:

".. Gorged and stinking with the life blood of others, fresh clots of which still adhered to the edge of the mouth."

"The glazed eyes stared horribly - almost mocking me, almost knowing that my efforts to destroy it would be thwarted."

The above descriptions sounded uncannily like parts of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (in particular, from Jonathan Harker’s journal, chapter 4 - page 58 of my copy – published by Arrow Books):

".. For on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth… It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood."

"There was a mocking smile on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad."

"…and the eyes fell full upon me, with all their blaze of basilisk horror."

I sat down with both books open in my lap and read them side-by-side and discovered that there were actually a number of spookily similar uses of wording, plot twists and phrasing, as listed below:

1)      Mental health patient in both novels discovered with severe neck trauma

From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 58 (Manchester describes the mysterious disappearance and subsequent discovery of a patient who went a walkabout from The Priory in Roehampton.  This hospital specialises in (and I quote from their website) “the management and treatment of mental health problems”):

"He was later found covered in blood in Highgate Cemetery and died some ten days later in Whittington Hospital.  According to official sources, the blood had poured from a throat wound."

From “Dracula”, page 293 (chapter 22 - Jonathan Harker describes the discovery of Dr Seward’s patient, Renfield, at the sanatorium that Dr Seward oversees):

"..they had found Renfield, lying on the floor, all in a heap.  His face was all bruised and crushed in, and the bones of the neck were broken."

2)   Descriptions of the Count

From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 112:

"Flared nostrils connected to a thin, high-bridged nose.  The mouth still set in its cruel expression with lips drawn far back as if unable to contain the fangs."

From “Dracula”, page 25 (chapter 2 - Jonathan Harker’s description of the Count):

His face was a strong – a very strong – aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and particularly arched nostrils;…”

From “Dracula”, page 291 (chapter 21 - Dr Seward's description of the Count):

"The waxen face, the high aquiline nose, in which the light fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between."

3)   Things to say when staking a vampire

From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 113 (Arthur, Manchester's assistant, is urging him to kill The Evil One):

"In God's name strike!" cried Arthur.

From “Dracula”, page 219 (chapter 16 - Arthur Holmwood is being instructed on how to effectively stake what used to be Lucy Westenra):

"..strike in God's name, …

(Two Arthurs involved in each respective staking?  Would it surprise you even more if I mentioned that two female vampire victims are called Lucy in “Dracula” and Lusia in “The Highgate Vampire”?!)

4)   The inexplicable wounding and death of local animals

From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 44 (Manchester details mysterious animal deaths):

"For a number of weeks, dead animals, notably nocturnal ones, kept appearing in Waterlow Park and Highgate Cemetery itself.  Further inspection revealed that what they all had in common were lacerations of the throat and they were completely drained of blood.”

From “Dracula”, page 87 (chapter 7 - after the Demeter has crashed, a cutting placed in Mina Harker’s journal tells of a “large dog, a half-breed mastiff” discovered dead):

"It must have been fighting, and manifestly had had a savage opponent, for its throat was torn away, and its belly slit open as it with a savage claw."

5)   Children lured away by women in white, necks bitten

From “The Highgate Vampire”, pages 121-122 (Manchester visits the cemetery in which Lusia is supposedly resting):

"And now a child had complained of being bitten by someone or something that enticed the youngster from the neighbouring recreation park into the wooded part of the graveyard".

Also from “The Highgate Vampire”, page 123 (upon interviewing the victim):

"He described his “lovely lady all in white” as being “very blonde with big starry eyes”.  It would seem that she allured him into the cemetery’s wood…  He woke with the familiar small incisions on his throat which his parents ascribed to animal or insect bites."

From “Dracula”, page 213 - 214 (chapter 16.  Seward, Holmwood & Van Helsing visit the churchyard in which Lucy is supposedly resting):

“He pointed; and far down the avenue of yews we saw a white figure advance – a dim white figure, which held something at its breast… …. we could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be a fair-haired child.”

From “Dracula”, pages 180-181 (a newspaper report about the “Bloofer Lady”):

"…. the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a “bloofer lady” had asked him to come for a walk… The wounds seem such as might be made by a rat or a small dog"

6)   Female victims of the Vampire hypnotised

From “The Highgate Vampire”, pages 88-89 (Manchester hypnotises Lusia):

“I brought Lusia to the place and induced a deep trance which eventually produced the following remarkable utterances from her lips:

“……. ……… you have lost… dark… just darkness… so dark…”

From “Dracula”, page 317 (chapter 23 - Van Helsing hypnotises Mina Harker):

Van Helsing:  “What do you see?”

Mina Harker: “I can see nothing; it is all dark.”

From Dracula, page 338 (chapter 25):

“He asks her what she can see or hear.  She answers to the first:

“Nothing; all is dark.”

While Manchester wasn’t brave enough to plagiarise Stoker word-for-word, it’s glaringly obvious he's taken liberties in the striking similarities of phrasing, events and wording used in ”The Highgate Vampire” that already appear in “Dracula”. And the reason Manchester gets away with such obvious creative poaching is because “Dracula” is in the public domain, i.e., no legal action can be taken against him by Stoker’s family.

In an interview with Manchester from the 27/02/1970 edition of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, the paper claimed ‘his theory is that the King Vampire of the Undead, originally a nobleman who dabbled in black magic in medieval Wallachia "somewhere near Turkey", walks again.’

(For the record, Wallachia was the principality ruled by Vlad Tepes, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, who (it’s been claimed) was one of the main historical figures on whom Count Dracula was based)

Manchester is quoted as saying, “His followers eventually brought him to England in a coffin at the beginning of the 18^th century and bought a house for him in the West End,” and that “his unholy resting place became Highgate cemetery.”

Frankly, Manchester’s house-moving nobleman is beginning to sound an awful lot like Bram Stoker’s Count to me.  After all, the reason Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania is because the Count has employed the services of the legal firm for which Harker works by getting them to procure him an estate in Purfleet, Essex.

Fast forward fifteen years to page 89 of “The Highgate Vampire”: the home of Sir William Ashurst, Lord Mayor of London in the late 17^th century, was knocked down after his death and St Michael’s Church was built on top of it.  This statement is mostly factually accurate.  In fact, the cemetery’s Terrace Catacombs were so named because they were literally built into what used to be the terrace of Sir William’s home.  However, Manchester also claims that the time of Sir William’s death (1720) just happened to be the “height of a vampire epidemic” in London that originated from south-eastern Europe.  He claims that the nobleman arrived in England and rented a property that “cast its shadow where now stands the Columbarium”.

What?  No mention of the term “King Vampire of the Undead” or his Wallachian origins in this later version?  Even the Gothic Press website (a site that heavily promotes and sells Manchester's books) now claims that it was the MEDIA who dubbed the vampire the “King Vampire of the Undead”!  Why could it possibly be that Manchester would want to distance himself from using the term “King Vampire of the Dead”?  It might have a little something to do with the fact that the term “Un-Dead home of the King Vampire” is used in chapter 27 of “Dracula” in Van Helsing’s Memorandum (page 376).

The Gothic Press’ website claims that Manchester’s follow-up novel “Carmel” is not only a completion of Dracula but a sequel.  The reason for this, I hear you ask?  The website claims that Stoker neglected to tie up many loose ends in Dracula and that these loose ends are resolved, courtesy of Manchester, in “Carmel”!  Unbelievable…

Let’s take a look at the Gothic Press publishing house itself.  The website describes itself as a not-for-profit organisation that gives the public access to works on subject matter that would otherwise remain under the radar.  Its banner proudly proclaims that it includes works by Sean Manchester and the first picture on the site (at the top of the page) is that of Lord Byron, from whom he claims to descend.  Manchester even dedicates “The Highgate Vampire” to the memory of Lord Byron. There is no evidence that Manchester actually runs this press but it’s been reported that he currently resides in Bournemouth.  The business seller’s address on eBay’s Gothic Press shop is listed as being in Bournemouth.  In fact, nobody else’s books appear to be for sale via the site, and the only photographs are ones that mostly include or feature Manchester (sometimes inexplicably dressed in period costume, like some second-rate Mills & Boon character).  It’s clear that if he doesn’t own or manage this website, then someone very close to (or in adoration of) him certainly does.

Regarding the proceeds of the book, I noted on one of the first pages of “The Highgate Vampire” that “All proceeds of this book will be contributed towards The Church of the Holy Grail”.  So I visited the church’s website and what did I see on the third line down?

“Primate & Bishop: The Right Reverend Seán Manchester, O.S.G.”

The Gothic Press website notes that part of Manchester’s ascent through the ranks of the church includes that “he assumed the primacy of the autocephalous jurisdiction Ecclesia Apostolica Jesu Christi”.  Now, Dictionary.com offered me up one of two very interesting definitions of the word ‘autocephalous’, the most relevant being:

Autocephalous:

2. (of a bishop) subordinate to no superior authority; self-governing.

Blimey!  He’s the principal of the very church that receives the book’s proceeds!  Well, well, well….

In conclusion, I’m of the opinion (based on all of the above) that Manchester has effectively made it impossible for me to take him seriously as a self-proclaimed expert on the subject because of his creative reliance on another author, as well as his total lack of hard evidence.  While he provides a bibliography on page 169, he curiously states in the acknowledgements afterwards that, “The textual sources from which I have drawn information for my research are too numerous to be listed here.”

There are no copies of police, doctor or veterinary reports included in this book and Manchester excuses away the lack of photographic evidence by claiming that, “Each failure of this supernatural being to be recorded by sophisticated means only served to confirm for me the true picture, albeit a picture of object horror” (pages 44-45).

The “neo gothic mansion” that the vampire allegedly lived in no longer exists due to its convenient demolition and the book contains only pictures of Lusia as portrayed by a model.  From the outset, Lusia’s true identity is a mystery (“... a beautiful twenty-two year old woman, whom I shall call Lusia”).  Elizabeth, one of the two girls who allegedly saw bodies rising out of graves in Highgate Cemetery, is coincidentally of eastern European descent and the origin of her surname conjures up suggestions of “good vs evil” (Wodjyla stems from the Polish word “woj”, meaning “warrior”).

It’s my opinion that Manchester is nothing more than a frustrated gothic romance novelist who desperately wishes he’d gotten in there first to write “Dracula” but instead has provided us with a half-baked, substandard facsimile.