The Ghost Theatre: Utterly transporting historical fiction, Elizabethan London as you've never seen it

“The gods are birds and the birds are gods. She let its cadence guide her feet. The gods – step – are birds – step – and the birds – step – are gods – leap.” - ‘The Ghost Theatre’ by Mat Osman.Shay is a messenger girl, who is more comfortable using the rooftops of Elizabethan London than its streets. She is a flapper - not the Jazz Age kind - but an Aviscultan, a member of a nomadic people who worship birds and live in a community beyond the city known as Birdland. Shay, as with a few of her people, has the ability to tell the future via murmurations, the patterns formed by flocking birds.Shay’s father had been a master falconer before becoming blind. Shay had apprenticed with him and continues to care for Lord Eltham’s prized falcon, Devana.Like all her people, Shay is very protective of birds and frees them from captivity whenever possible. One such adventure finds her fleeing from a shop owner and his men. She encounters Nonesuch, the dark star of the city's fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar. He helps her evade her pursuers and introduces her to the world of the theatre.Over time they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London's hidden corners. Yet as their fame grows they become swept up in the dark web of the Elizabethan Court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come. No further details to avoid spoilers.‘The Ghost Theatre’ was an incredible work of literary historical fiction that contains elements of the fantastical. I was stunned by the beauty of Osman’s prose as well as his vision of Elizabethan England. I had enjoyed Osman’s debut, ‘The Ruins’, though with ‘The Ghost Theatre’ I feel that he has soared high into new territory.From her first appearance leaping from roof to roof, I fell in love with Shay. I am certain that her story will remain with me for a long time. Of course, there are plenty of other amazing characters within its pages: Lord Nonesuch, Trussell, an actor and artist, Alouette, who does their lights and props, Blank, theMoorish musician, and other members of the Blackfriars troupe. Shay appears to be something of a Wendy to these lost boys and girl. In addition, there are cameos from Doctor John Dee and the ageing Queen Elizabeth.Overall, I found ‘The Ghost Theatre’ an incredible novel that completely transported me into Osman’s vision of Elizabethan England. His fictional Aviscultans were an inspiration and I felt that the entire novel was rich in a reverence for the deep magic of the natural world.Very highly recommended.

A wonderful book, a glorious and imaginative story, Shay is a fantastic creation.I very much enjoyed this book. Fabulous…. Literally

I have been waiting to read this book for so long. Ever since Mat started to talk about it on his social media I have been excited to read it and it did not disappoint.In his first novel, The Ruins, he demonstrated that he has a gift for world-building that takes the reader straight off the page and into another place where anything is possible.I love magical realism and stories that skate between the edges of what is possible and what is incredible. Having grown up on the storytelling of Neil Gaiman and John Irving, I found a similar kind of magic in the worlds that Mat Osman creates.His cast is very young but cut adrift in a world of venal, manipulative adults they have quickly learned how to look after themselves.The Ghost Theatre is a tale of found family set against the backdrop of Elizabethan England where people struggle between the forces of nascent scientific research and outright quackery.Shay is an outcast from her own culture, the aviscultans, who worship birds. Their mantra "the birds are gods and the gods are birds" echoes through this book, but Shay is already an outsider, finding succour and escape in the world of London's Blackfriars Boys, a theatre troupe made up of runaways and abandoned children. Able to pass herself off as a messenger boy, she quickly becomes a part of the troupe and gradually spends less and less time at home with her own people out on the river marshes.The Ghost Theatre blurs the lines between what is real and imagined, but also between the hard realism of a world where children are bought and sold like commodities and the found families they construct as solace.Yet even in this world, one can never trust anyone else. Shay's closest bonds are to Nonesuch, a star of the stage, adored and worshipped as a stage god, and Devana a hawk who was tended and cared for by her late mother and through whose eyes she sometimes sees the world.It is an epic tale of heartbreak and betrayal with a small and tender love story at its very heart. The closing chapters are so beautifully crafted they brought tears to my eyes.Mat Osman is a magical writer who knows the art of wordcraft so well.This novel ought to be recognised as a modern classic.

Loved the concept of this, but the way the novel was written just didn't work for me. Graphic language and so descriptive, it lost the sense of action for me.

Enjoyed this book . Really unusual story but captures the history of the era . Definitely worth reading

I'm enjoying this immensely. The language is deliciously sensual and visually evocative (hence my headline). I realise I'm deliberately slowing down as I don't want it to end. Clever Mat Osman - thank youk!

Thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

I’m halfway through reading The Ghost Theatre for the second time, and Shay and Nonesuch have started showing up in my dreams. This is one of Mat Osman’s strengths as a novelist, to create characters so real that by the end of the book you feel like you’ve known them forever. Another strength is the lyrical beauty of his prose, which I’m appreciating even more on the second read – taking my time to savor the language now that I’m not frantic to know what’s going to happen to Shay. I had to buy it on Kindle even though I had pre-ordered the hardback, so that I could highlight favorite passages without marring my signed copy.This is a fascinating story, beautifully told. Highly recommended.

Utterly engaging… slow to catch fire and then roars away to an ending the just suddenly douses you in cold water! And leaves you wanting more…. I think!