Shortlisted for the 2007 Theatre Book Prize. For more information about the prize, see http://www.str.org.uk/
'The author really goes into the whole complexity of the situation of having children in the theatre: the morality of it, the darker aspects of it, how they were trained, what sort of people trained. It is endlessly fascinating, I would think for anybody...very well written and very enjoyable.' - Sian Phillips, Actress, Theatre Book Judge
'Children and Theatre in Victorian Britain is an excellent overview of the various concerns - legal, artistic and sociological - tracing the changing notions of childhood, of children, and of their place in a world that was slowly shifting its emphasis from the adult to the child.' - Judith Flanders, Times Literary Supplement
'Children were such a prominent part of the Victorian theatre onstage, offstage and in the audience that it is strange that hitherto there has been no book-length study of the subject. Happily Anne Varty has remedied this with a wide-ranging, thoroughly researched and eminently readable account.' - Richard Foulkes, Theatre Notebook
'...[a] meticulously researched study...' - Theatre Research International