Introduction to Character Sources
Every Tuesday, we will be posting a short essay or link to the following characters, real and imagined, who provided some of the inspiration for the inhabitants of The Showman’s Pleasure Garden…
VERSIONS OF EVE:
BUMPS - based on Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood, and the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
CORY - based on Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, and the Lady of Shallot
MINA - based on Marianne North, flower painter and traveller, and Princess Wencheng
VERSIONS OF ADAM
NED THE ARCHITECT - based on Edwin Lutyens and Harold Nicholson (White Knight/Christ)
FREDERICK THE GARDENER - based on Frederick Baker and Vita’s gardener (The Beast/Lucifer).
MISTER SMITH THE SHOWMAN/MAGICIAN - based on Albert Smith and any other capitalist Mountebank (Mammon/God)
VERSIONS OF LILLITH
LILY - based on Margaret Fountain, butterfly- and man-hunter, and Little Red Riding Hood