Miss Treadway & the field of Stars is a rather apt novel to be reading in Brexit Britain at the moment. As the baby boomer generation would like to "take back control" and take us back to a Britain which had sovereignty and this is pretty much set in those "halcyon" days. London in the mid sixties was seen as a cauldron of culture, fashion and music but this was merely a thin facade. Beneath the dressing, there was the old seething hatreds of race and difference and this novel sets out how those days were. This a novel of race, identity and immigration portraying the sixties with the grittiness that it deserves. I'd whole heartedly recommend this novel as it has an excellent trick of narrating the other side of sixties London and questioning the notion of Englishness. All the characters are engaging and struggling with their individual senses of self and what it is to be English, what it is to be of race or a minority whether it be colour or religion or sex, all while searching for a missing actress - Miss Iolanthe Green.

Intriguing premise and well written story.. Will be recommending to friends.

This is an absorbing and intriguing book which takes the context of the rapidly changing 1960s culture and peoples it with the equally rapidly evolving characters and norms of that time.

We see the institutional racism, the uncertainty of immigrants as to their position and value in society, feminism, the effects of changing morals and greater freedoms,.

Woven together with a main story of an actress who mysteriously disappears, sub-plots of intricate personal relationships and troubled histories, insights into the working and family lives of a variety of individuals, and a vivid picture of London's ever-buzzing nightlife and social scene.

A compelling read which keeps you guessing, a mix of appealing characters, well-developed and described with detail and liveliness which transports you into the time and place with elegance.

This is quite a novel. Never before have the swinging sixties been so clearly and cleverly evoked. I’m not old enough to have lived through this time but now I genuinely feel I have! It read like memories, like a faded photo of another time. The nuances and the feel for the detail, the delight and the shadows are just so brilliantly woven into a mystery of a novel.

But this isn’t just a mystery – it’s a look at what London and the sixties was like – a look at the many different nationalities and ‘classes’ who met there. There’s that famous phrase by LP Hartley “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. How apt for this novel!

And the central plot is the mystery of the missing actress but like in often the case of a mystery set in the world of theatre, it’s the action just off set, in the wings that proves to be where the spotlight really lies.

This is a multilayered novel with a lot of goodness in it – the mystery of the actress kept my interest to the end but it’s the journey to that destination that’s the real gem here.

This will be on the booktrail on january 12th

It is 1965 and Anna Treadway, a theatre dresser, lives above a Turkish Cypriot cafe in Covent Garden. Her boss, a theatre impressario who is (illegally, for the time) gay, also lives there. One night Iolanthe Green, an American actress working in London, goes missing after leaving the theatre. Speculation is rife and the story dominates the news for a short time.

The authorities soon lose interest in the case, however. Brennan Hayes, the detective sergeant (who has changed his name to Barnaby to sound less Irish), is hamstrung by his boss’s insistence that the stupid woman has done herself in and it’s pointless wasting too much effort on her. Worried that Iolanthe’s disappearance is no longer news, Anna starts to make her own enquiries. In the course of her somewhat erratic investigations in the underground music clubs favoured by Iolanthe, she meets Aloyisius, a Jamaican accountant who agrees to help her.

As the unlikely pair trawl through the underbelly of Swingin’ London they suffer racist behaviour, face police brutality, and encounter back-street abortionists. At one point they are mistaken for prostitute and pimp – for why else would a white woman associate with a black man? All the prejudices of this newly enlightened time are laid bare. People are afraid to speak out because they have something to hide or something to lose. And it seems Anna, too, has her secrets. Meanwhile, Iolanthe is still missing, Barnaby’s marriage is disintegrating and Ottmar, the Turkish cafe owner is having trouble with his freedom-demanding daughter.

Though it exposes the bleakness that hid beneath the gaiety of the 60s, Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars is certainly not all misery. There is warmth and compassion here, and humour. Miranda Emmerson’s writing is glorious, the dialogue and characterisation superb and the background details spot on. This is a wonderful portrayal of a society in upheaval. Attitudes may be changing, women may be breaking free, understanding of other cultures and lifestyles is on the horizon, and a love affair may be developing between Anna and Aloyisius. Let’s hope we never go back to the dark impoverished days when such things were too shocking to contemplate.

I really enjoyed this tale of an American actress who disappears in London in 1965 at the time when the Moors Murders was in the news daily. Iolanthe Green is starring in a West End show when she fails to appear for work one day and it is her dresser, Anna Treadway, who leads the search for her when everyone else, other than an Irish detective seargent, gives up.

Iolanthe (Lanny) has many secrets which are unravelled during the course of the novel in which the intrepid Anna plays detective with the help of a young West Indian man, Aloysius. Younger readers may be shocked by the colour and Irish related prejudice of the heady 1960s but it is a realistic portrayal of London at the time. The setting is realistic and the characters believable. The lives of a number of people are covered during the course of the novel and the only one I felt didn't ring true was that of Orla and the decision she made.

A well written and researched journey into the past and I look forward to reading more by Miranda Emerson. I hope Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is as successful as it deserves to be. Thanks to NetGalley and Fourth Estate for the opportunity to read and review it.

I liked this book from the start; there was something about the author’s style which intrigued me and straight away I was interested in the characters. The characters were genuine and well thought out. Emmerson allowed their characteristics to unfold beautifully during the course of the story.

The setting for me was great. I am a Londoner and enjoyed that I recognised many of the locations and the detail given by the author showed she may well have been a Londoner, too, or did a good job in her research.

A good amount of research went into this novel in terms of the setting and time. The backdrop, use of description and dialogue all added to the authenticity of the time. I got a good sense of where I was and became quite absorbed by the 1960s street life, clubs and society of London from the aspect of professionals like the police and journalists to the artists in the theatre, the working class and the immigrants who had come to London during the time.

There was just the right amount of tension and drama to make this book a page turner. I’m a very slow reader and I finished it within a week, which is rare for me.

The book is written in the third person but the point of view is close to the protagonist, Anna, for the most part but we do pop into the mindset of other main characters. At times Emmerson’s leap from one point of view to another within a paragraph had me dizzy and I would have preferred to follow one person’s perspective for at least a chapter rather than chopping and changing like that. That being said it didn’t detract from this being a thoroughly intense and riveting story with many plots and sub-plots that led to an altogether fabulous read.

I would recommend this book and would look out for more from the author in the future.

This wonderful story is told in the 1960's ,the other side of the Swinging Sixties .This is the London I remember in my teens .A story of people from other countries and backgrounds coming together to search for missing American Actress Iolanthe .The search is led by Anna her dresser and involves some great characters along the way .It is a mystery but also a story of the time of how it was and how prejudiced people could be of people who were not white English !!! A great read .I would love if Anna could have a book written about her .

Love, love , love this book! I cannot recommend this book highly enough. What a story! A famous actress goes missing and her friend and dresser sets out to find her when she thinks the police aren't doing enough. The story is set in 1960s London, amidst the theatre and the jazz clubs of Soho. Populated by a wide range of characters, all with some sort of disadvantage be it colour, nationality or social level, this book highlights the dreadful discrimination of the times whilst following an entertaining and enthralling storyline. A real insight into how people were treated, particularly by authority, and how they were made to feel and how they could be manipulated. Quite shocking at times! I couldn't put this book down until I found out what had happened. A must read!

Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars is a perfect book club book for that month you don't want to plough through a depressing 600 page book on the current state of the world. Instead, take a step into London of the 1960's and join Anna, a theatre dresser whose actress has gone missing. London Soho of the 1960's is presented as a place to reinvent yourself and everyone in the story has a secret background.

There is plenty to discuss, as themes of work vs. family, racism, the tradeoffs of motherhood and marriage and secrecy vs. connection are all in play. Not shying away from the ugliness of peoples' behaviour, this is a mystery in form, but really read as an exploration of the time with the engaging Anna and Aloysious. There were many people in the story that I was sorry to let go, and I would be delighted to meet them again.

An interesting novel set in the swinging sixties.

It took me a while to warm to it but, once I had, I found myself swept along with it.

The story line is well thought and presented and the characters warm and engaging.

Overall, a book well worth reading.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book sent by the publisher via NetGalley.

Set in 1960’s London ‘Miss Treadway & The Field of Stars’ outlines the story of the disappearance of the American actress, Iolanthe Green and Anna Treadway’s (her dresser) attempts to discover what had happened to her. Through this we are introduced to different characters, the Detective charged with solving the case; the café owners family who emigrated from Turkish Cyprus; Miss Treadway’s flatmate; a journalist; and a young accountant from Kenya who worked on the books of various dubious characters from the seedy side of London’s nightclubs.

As a sub-plot we are introduced to the Detective’s wife and daughter and witness all the discordant notes of their relationship. He is an Irishman struggling to fit into the racist police force and trying to fathom what is wrong with his marriage. How will this play-out with the main plot?

Miss Treadway, herself has a secret and is therefore responsive to the worries hounding her by Iolanthe’s disappearance and this coupled with her dis-satisfaction at the police’s attempts compels her to follow the trail.

Initially, I was not sure about Miranda Emmersen’s style of writing, it felt quite old fashioned and simple but as I became enmeshed in the details I realised that the voice was exactly right – it reflected the tone of the characters and the time and setting.

On the surface Emmersen has presented a mystery, but through the investigation what is revealed is the reality of living in a big city, surrounded by different cultures and classes at a time when the country was in a state of change. An emerging youth culture, new music, new fashions, and an awareness of the black population and their attempts to carve a place for themselves against the odds. Coupled with this we have the Establishment with their Members Clubs, Shooting Parties etc.

In my opinion, the dominant themes of this novel are racism and struggle by the marginalised characters in order to understand and overcome their isolation. This sits unhappily for me when considering the Swinging Sixties from a distance. Worth a read? Yes, most certainly if only to make you think.

For a good read on a winter evening, I can recommend Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars, a mystery set in 1960s London. I picked this up because I’ve enjoyed William Shaw’s detective stories set in the same period. The period detail isn’t so intense at the start of the book, but it forms a background to a mystery that gently unravels:


Soho, 1965. In a tiny two-bed flat above a Turkish café on Neal Street lives Anna Treadway, a young dresser at the Galaxy Theatre. When the American actress Iolanthe Green disappears after an evening’s performance at the Galaxy, the newspapers are wild with speculation about her fate. But as the news grows old and the case grows colder, it seems Anna is the only person left determined to find out the truth. Her search for the missing actress will take her into an England she did not know existed: an England of jazz clubs and prison cells, backstreet doctors and seaside ghost towns, where her carefully calibrated existence will be upended by violence but also, perhaps, by love. For in order to uncover Iolanthe’s secrets, Anna is going to have to face up to a few of her own…

What I liked best about this book was how it looked at identity, in particular the identity of those who live in London but aren’t from England. The missing actress Iolanthe is American Irish, or is she? And who is Yolanda Green? We learn more about her identity as the story unfolds. The detective in charge of her case, Brennan hayes, who also goes by Barnaby, is of Irish origin but hides it in order to progress in the police force. The café owner, Ottmar is an exiled Turkish Cypriot, who left his dreams of being a poet behind when he fled. He wrangles with life in London and what it is doing to his family, in particularly his sixteen year old daughter Samira. Then there’s Aloysius, a young black accountant from Jamaica who aspires to be middle class and English.


“‘I have a dirty secret, Anna … I want a house, Anna Treadway. I want a garden. With rose bushes in it. I want two children in school uniform coming in at four o’clock to do a jigsaw on the living-room carpet. I want roast beef on Sundays, crumpets at the weekend. A ticket once a year to watch the Proms.'”

And Anna, quiet Anna who has no life outside her work as a theatre dresser, well, Anna’s identity gradually reveals itself as the book progresses.

Miranda Emmerson’s writing really comes into its own in paragraphs like this, where Ottmar describes his cafe:


“The Alabora, with its turquoise walls and sunset coloured chairs, its silver-framed mirrors and red and gold embroidered bunting was a vision from a dream he had; but it was a dream of his childhood. It was a dream of visiting his uncle in Istanbul and sitting in the coffee shops watching the men smoking and playing chess.”

She does a great job of conveying the wishes and dreams of the different characters, even those that they can’t say out loud. And, like with all good stories, in the end the characters find their own resolutions, if not in quite the way they might have thought.

Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars is out on 12 January and costs around £12.99 hardback, £7.99 Kindle.

This is a wonderful first novel. Set in the 1960's, it very accurately evokes the era. Anna Treadway is a dresser for the star of a West End show called Iolanthe Green. Lanny goes missing after a Saturday performance and although the Police are looking for her, Anna takes on the search as she fears for Lanny's safety. Through this trawl of London's underbelly, we meet many characters who get caught up in the search including Alysious, a black accountant, and Brennan, a policeman on a mission. We find out that no-one is really as they seem on the surface and everyone is hiding secrets. The final race across the country to find Lanny brings the story to a climax but there are plenty of questions left unanswered. The book was both heart breaking and heart warming, full of engaging characters and period details. I loved reading it and it stayed with me for days afterwards. One of my best reads for 2016, thank you.

A.beautifully written novel, exploring some interesting themes. I really enjoyed the period setting and the exploration of some of the major issues of the time including racism and abortion. I loved the characters and very much look forward to future novels by the same author.

Once again a big thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read a beautiful, well written and constructed book that I would probably not other wised noticed. It has a strange beginning that will later make sense .It’s set in November 1965 in a sleazy rather than swinging London. It takes the reader into the reality of those days. As one who was then at college, I remember this time clearly and felt that this novel could well have actually been written at this time. It captures the feel, the mood perfectly. It was very real for me.

Anna Treadway is a dresser, a rather well educated one it turns out, at one of the big theatres in the heart of London. She is currently working with Iolanthe Green, an American actress with an aura of mystery, who just disappears. It’s headline news nationally for a few days then other events over take it. Anna vows to find her. She meets a Jamaican accountant called Aloysius who ends up helping her. There is a police detective sergeant, Barnaby Hayes who does his best to follow her trail, but has his own problems and is working in an age before digital communication. Anna also shares a room over a Turkish Cypriot café, the owner of which and his family also become involved. This is a story of the underside of the glamorous London depicted in the 60s. Nobody is who they seem and everybody seems to be trying to find their real persona.

There is so much to think about in this tale. A book club could have great fun discussing it. I’m so glad that I read it and would love to have given it four and a half stars. Probably not five if only because of the strange ending that had me searching back through the book to check what it was referring to. But I shall certainly be looking for Miranda Emmerson’s next book.

This is a very craftily conceived story which, for the main part, uses a missing actress Iolanthe, as a device to uncover a raw London, one which passes out of sight of the average tourist. In so doing it uncovers the lives of some very interesting characters. Ottmar, the Turkish Cypriot café owner who loves this country more than his own but couldn’t quite fathom his rebellious teenage daughter. There’s Aloysius who suffered a brutal attack which was sickening and showed what an incredible inner strength he had in dealing with such blatant racism without it affecting the goodness of his heart. Anna who discovers parallels with Iolanthe, whilst trying to find her. Plus many other wonderful, flawed characters dear reader. Thought provoking and riveting. Couldn't put it down!

This was a great read that would keep you entertained for hours on a train or plane journey. At first, it seems like it’s going to be a straightforward period detective mystery but there are a number of elements that, as you read on, raise it to another level. Firstly, the authentic feel of the period setting. This is the England of homes without central heating, smoke-filled bars and buses, seedy clubs, drugs, awful coffee, backstreet abortions and, most shockingly, homophobia and overt racism against black people, Irish people and basically anyone who is perceived as an outsider. Secondly, Miranda Emmerson has created such a great cast of supplementary characters, including Ottmar, the Turkish café owner, and Aloysius, the Jamaican accountant. It is no accident that the characters who help Anna in her search for Iolanthe are all outsiders and perhaps it’s the fact that Iolanthe is also an outsider that makes them care so much for her fate. Lastly, this is such a multi-layered novel because underneath the simple mystery narrative are questions of identity and reinvention. All the characters have either reinvented themselves, wish to reinvent themselves or are struggling to play a part they haven’t quite come to terms with. There’s Anna, who admits “I tried to be someone and I failed” and is drawn to starting over anew; Sergeant Brennan Hayes, who changes his Christian name and accent to disguise his Irish origins (“His new voice commanded more respect, his new name spoke of privileged beginnings. He didn’t belong anywhere, he was aware of this, but he looked like he belonged, sounded like he belonged”) ; his wife, Orla, who empathises with Iolanthe’s determination that “one part of your life needs to end and another to begin” when she realises that Brennan “just wasn’t who I thought he was at all”; and Aloysius, who has moved to London because he is “in love with the idea of England” but the England of Dickens, which turns out to be a far cry from reality he experiences. I was really impressed with this book. At the end, there are questions unanswered but I’d like to think these were not unintended loose ends but deliberate on the part of the author or (even better) threads to be woven into a future book.

This book was not at all as I expected. I truly thought the book would be centred around the swinging sixties, and the glamorous world of the theatre. How wrong could I be? True, the setting is sixties London, and the main characters are involved in theatre. However, this book reveals a much different London, one of prejudice and ignorance, and ultimately injustice. I don't think the actual 'mystery' of the story is as important as the stories of the characters and their experience of life in London. A fabulous read and beautifully written.

Emmerson's novel has just the right combination of a remarkable book. Comprising of a dash of mystery, a dollop of suspense and mixture of historical fiction. A must read for everyone who loves a gripping story from the very beginning.

I must confess at some parts I felt the story fell in a wayward direction but it was beautifully pieced together, that towards the end everything fell into place. Emmerson's work is truly fabulous and would urge everyone to pick up a copy.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and Netgally for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a 1960s atmospheric period mystery set in London. This is less a crime story, more an exploration of the immigrant experience in a city struggling to adapt to recent incomers. It begins with the disappearance of Iolanthe 'Lanny' Green, an actress and the media's temporary obsession with what happened to her. As the media and police downgrade the importance of the story, Anna Treadaway, Lanny's dresser at the Galaxy Theatre, decides to find out what happened to her. Sergeant Brennan Hayes, who changed his first name to Barnaby to escape the anti Irish sentiments he faces, investigates Lanny's background. On occasion, Anna and Hayes collaborate.

So we are given insights into a small group of outsiders, their lives, backgrounds, hopes and failures. We learn of Brennan, Orla and their daughter, Gracie. Turkish cafe owner, Ottamar, works all the hours for his family and he worries about his daughter, Samira, and her disconnect with the family. Leonard is gay in a world where this is illegal. Anna meets Aloysius, a refined old fashioned courteous gentleman trying to maintain his dignity amidst the appalling racism and police brutality he encounters. The world of backstreet abortions is revealed and attitudes to women leave a lot to be desired. A marriage that has become frosty slowly begins to unravel. Deceptions and secrets emerge amidst characters trying desperately to reinvent themselves in their search for new identities. In the search for Lanny and who she is, a tentative and delicate relationship develops despite all that conspires against it. We come to understand exactly why Anna comes to care so much about Lanny as her turmoil and trauma unfolds.

This group of characters connect with each other, and we see the loneliness and silence within, the crushed dreams, despair and their hopes for new opportunities to rebuild anew. It is a hard world that demands sacrifices and stoicism. The descriptions of London vividly evoke the 1960s culture and attitudes. A society that is afraid of people with different skin colours, and reacts with hate and anger. The author beautifully delineates the succour the group gain from each other, a respite to counter the daily knockdowns they face. This is a novel to savour. Highly recommended. Thanks to HarperCollins 4th Estate for an ARC.

A very good period piece depicting a London at the beginning of the Swingin' Sixties. A London that managed to be conservative and innovative, narrow minded and cosmopolitan, all at the same time. The novel is a mystery but it is a lot more than that, it is a meditation on prejudice, race relations and loneliness.
Two women dominate the novel: Iolanthe, and Anna. The latter is a dresser in a London theatre and the former an actress. They get to know each other a bit and then one night Iolanthe suddenly vanishes.
Anna is not happy with the way the police are conducting the investigation and starts to look for Iolanthe herself. Here we meet other interesting characters, all diverse and a sample of how multicultural London already was in the 60s. People who moved here to make a better life and contributing in making London one of the best cities on Earth.
Yes, there is a mystery but it is more like an old fashioned cozy mistery than a proper crime book. But it is the characters who make the book, interesting and three dimensional, you really get to know them with all their hopes and fears.
I would give it 4.5 but I can't and it has to be a 4.

Set in London in the early 1960s. Anna Treadwell is a dresser in a west end theatre. She befriends an american film star and actress Iolanthe ( Lanny ) Green. She is appearing in a play "The field of stars". Lanny suddenly disappears. Anna decides to find her. The police have given the investigation to detective sergeant Barnaby Hayes. Full of characters - the Turkish cafe owner Ottmar, his wilfull daughter Samira, theatre manager Leonard ( and Anna's landlord ), Aloysius the black accountant and Hayes's wife Orla.
Well written you want to know how the story is resolved Keeps your interest.. See my full review on the Euro-Crime website.