Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars: A Novel

By Miranda Emmerson

London, November 1965. Millions of Londoners are living and working on the fringes of the fashionable West End. Tales of the Moors murders fill the papers. Beyond the glamour of the all-white Carnaby Street scene lie other worlds of Caribbean music, Turkish coffee houses, Soho prostitution and stolen identities.  

One Saturday evening, American star Iolanthe Green finishes a performance, walks out onto the Charing Cross Road and disappears. At first everybody cares where she went … and then nobody does.

A diverse group of émigré Londoners—an Irish policeman, a Turkish coffee house owner and a Jamaican accountant—are drawn together to search for a woman who’s quickly being forgotten. They are led by Iolanthe’s dresser, Anna Treadway—a woman who knows quite a bit about reinvention—and together they will travel into a world of underground music clubs, back street abortionists, seaside ghost towns and police brutality.
 
Passionate, witty and surprising, Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is a mystery, a romance and a tale of immigration: the story of how some people are forced to start their lives again and again and again....

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781443450799

Miranda Emmerson

Miranda Emmerson is a playwright and author living in Wales. She has written numerous drama adaptations for BBC Radio 4 as well as highly-acclaimed original dramas. Miss Treadway & The Field of Stars is her first novel.

Reviews for Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars

[nicx27 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book turned out to be not what I was expecting at all. I think I had in mind a jolly 60s caper (partly because of the lovely cover) and what I actually got was a serious story about racism and family problems amongst other things.There's a lot going on in this story and quite a few different strands. The disappearance of Iolanthe Green, the missing actress, is what the story revolves around and yet in a way the focus was on everybody but her. We meet policeman Barnaby Hayes and he features a fair amount in the story, but I was left wondering what the point of him being such a main character was, and the conclusion to his story was sadly lacking.The ending was extremely abrupt and I kept pressing the button on my Kindle thinking that there must be more. I couldn't even remember who the final character mentioned was and had to go back and search through the book. Even then, I'm not sure what the relevance of mentioning them was.I liked many aspects of this book. I liked Anna Treadway and I particularly liked her gentle and kind friend, Aloysius. Theirs were the sections of the story that stood out for me. Whilst there isn't a major 60s feel to it, I did enjoy reading about the places that they visited whilst searching for Iolanthe. I thought the prejudices of the period were portrayed quite well and there were some sections that were very uncomfortable and shocking to read.This is a hard book for me to review. I did feel that all the strands didn't quite come together. The author is a lovely writer but maybe the level of detail and the number of characters was too much for me. I do think the book will be a success though and Miranda Emmerson has a fine way with words.

[jaylia3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While it took me a little while to get into this story, by halfway through the book I couldn't put the book down. It wasn't what I expected, but that's okay because Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is more literary and substantial than I thought it would be. It sounds like a mystery, and along the way a lot is revealed, but it’s more about the people in the story rather than a crime that needs solving. Characters are one of its strengths and they include Anna with her secrets, an Irish police officer trying to appear British and his unhappy wife, the Turkish family who run the restaurant Anna lives above, and a black Jamaican accountant who wants to fit in. It’s set in 1965 so there are references to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Carnaby Street, but it’s not a lighthearted swinging sixties story. Instead it explores themes like racism, classism, immigration, and repression. The writing is atmospheric and full of mood-setting description that's lush and gritty, heartwarming and heartbreaking. I read an advanced review copy of this book supplied to me at no cost and with no obligation by the publisher. Review opinions are mine.

[charl08-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 1960s London, Iolanthe walks out of the theatre where she is starring and disappears. Anna Treadway wants to find the woman she was working for as a dresser. Noone is quite who they seem to be on this compelling story, but I cared about all the characters. I liked how the author writes about assumptions, migration and discrimination (without losing sight of the story). This is not a whitewashed picture of Swinging London in the 1960s (though the fab four do get a nod)." By Stockwell...Anna and Aloysius fell again to comparing books they’d read and books they’d loved. Brave New World: Aloysius but not Anna. 1984: them both, though Anna honestly hadn’t ever loved Orwell. Brighton Rock: Aloysius hadn’t read any Graham Greene but yes, of course he meant to. Evelyn Waugh: Anna liked A Handful of Dust because it was human, Aloysius preferred Decline and Fall because the comedy was better. Then Anna pretended to have read Bleak House and Aloysius pretended to have finished Dombey and Son. Then they agreed that Shirley was a better novel than most people thought but only in the first half. They couldn’t agree on Austen and Aloysius found himself slightly embarrassed at being the one to champion her so they dropped it and both pretended to have read Tom Jones instead."