The Real Mackay
Walter Scott’s Favourite Comedian
28th May, 2024
Night after night jostling crowds clamour for entry to Edinburgh’s Theatre Royal with one name on their lips: the Real Mackay. But who is he? The answer leaps off the page in this meticulously researched historical novel which plunges the reader into the weird and wonderful golden era of Scottish national drama, seen through the eyes of Charles Mackay and his family. Walter Scott’s favourite comedian dazzles and delights packed audiences across nineteenth-century Scotland for decades, bringing laughter to thousands, including the king. But behind his hilarious stage antics is a man grieving for the women he loses, all of them dying tragically young – his mother, his wife, his daughter. In the grip of unstoppable momentum, his extraordinary popularity casting long shadows over those he loves, will he be forced to choose between fame and family?
- ISBN:9781805143192
- eISBN:9781805147862
- Paperback RRP: £9.99
Paperback available to order from all good bookshops and libraries in the UK and worldwide on Amazon and various other sites - E-books and Audiobooks available inline in all the usual places
Disappearing Acts
The Real Mackay's Granddaughter
PUBLICATION May 28th 2026
Edinburgh 1858.
Lottie has lived in a magical world of stories under the shelter of her beloved grandfather, a famous comic actor, for as long as she can remember - but now he’s dead and she’s stranded in a houseful of cousins, her strict Victorian uncle only noticing her when she steps out of line. Using her imagination, she begins to navigate the real world on her own terms, lurching from one idea to the next, taking risks and keeping secrets, determined no one will stop her pursuing her theatrical dreams. Eloping with an aspiring actor at seventeen, Lottie realises too late she has handed control of her life to her charming unpredictable husband who quickly discards the plans they made together and forms a very different kind of travelling theatre company. A game of wits ensues, each vying for control in a world of comedy, illusions, and sleight of hand as they tour the length and breadth of the country till tragedy strikes and the future is suddenly impossible to imagine.