The Edge of the Crowd

by Ross Gilfillan

London, 1851. Among the teeming crowds visiting the Great Exhibition is the newspaper columnist Henry Hilditch, whose sensational expos?s of the lives and deprivations of the working class are the talk of bourgeois London. But Hilditch has another agenda. Mary Medworth, the love he lost the previous summer in Florence, has reappeared somewhere in the slums of London's East End. Hilditch follows the trail from the splendour of Hyde Park to the squalor of Whitechapel, encountering thieves, gaolers, kidnappers and false friends who may well lead him to his own destruction. The photographer Cornelius Touchfarthing is Hilditch's last link to Mary. But Touchfarthing is preoccupied with his own ambition - to create an image so astonishing it will elevate the trade of photography into High Art. Ross Gilfillan's second novel is a thrilling recreation of Victorian London and a moving story of love, science and photography.

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Hello and thanks for checking out my books. My latest novel is the London-set historical 'IN LEICESTER FIELDS' - more on that below - but before this there was:

THE SNAKE OIL DICKENS MAN (4th Estate)
Billy Talbot grows up in Missouri and is informed he's the illegitimate son of Charles Dickens. Questing to find his famous father, Billy connects with conman Hope Scattergood, who makes his money impersonating the great writer. The novel was successfully auctioned at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

THE EDGE OF THE CROWD (4th Estate)
My second, historical novel ranges in backdrop from the glass palace of The Great Exhibition of 1851 to the East End's horrific slum-lands but also visits Florence and Siena, as Henry Hilditch, writer of sensational newspaper reports, searches for lost love, Mary Medworth. Runner up for the Encore Prize for Best Second Novel, 2002.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN VICTORIAN LONDON (Pen and Sword)
My first non-fiction offers a street-level view of the world Henry Hilditch investigates, one of pickpockets and prostitutes, low lodging-houses, conmen and muggers, burglars and killers.

LOSING IT, THE GROWING PAINS OF A TEENAGE VAMPIRE (Lodestone Books)
Despite the strap-line, the only vampire in this dark but funny comedy about 17 years old Brian 'B.J.' Johnstone and his search to find himself and lose his virginity, is a costume one.

THE LAST OF THE REVOLUTION (Ballingdon Books)
Washed-up journalist Anthony Carver arrives on the volatile island of San Joaquin to discover that a second revolution is brewing and that Cristo, iconic leader of the the first rebellion, may not be dead after all.

THE CAPO'S DAUGHTER (Rampart Books)
My debut crime novel introduces foster-child Juliet Hobson, who grows up largely ignored and yearns to know the identity of her biological parents – until she learns that her father is an East-End crime boss.

IN LEICESTER FIELDS (Ballingdon Books)
In 2025, I returned to historical fiction with a historical novel I had been working on for some years. Set in London of 1783, In Leicester Fields tells of Michel Angelo, a fiery female orphan from London's Foundling Hospital who is apprenticed to the dying artist, Henry Grace, now secretly painting a final, epic work in his attic. When Michel enlists Grub Street journalist 'Mouse' Malone to investigate Grace's coded masterpiece, hellish forces are unleashed.

Reviews

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the summer of 1851, the Great Exhibition is in London where photographer Cornelius Touchfarthing and his assistant John Rankin are taking peoples portraits with the marvel of The Glass Palace as the background. Rankin assists by lugging chemicals and attending to the developing process while Touchfarthing snaps the shutter. The two men struggle as to how best make a success of their business partnership, each having his own very different ideas on the matter.

Henry Hilditch is a reporter for the Morning Messenger, he travels from the Great Exhibition through the stinking gutters and alleyways of London to the filth of Whitechaple looking for a sensational story that will shock the upper class readers of his column. In his effort to be an impartial observer he discovers that even with the best intentions to remain objective the mere presence of an observer can change the fate of events.

Hilditch gathers stories from the dark side of London the subject of which have often had to do something beyond an honest day's work to feed themselves and their families. But when Henry receives a letter from an old friend it rekindles his strong feelings for Mary Medworth and his slightly obsessive personality is turned toward finding the woman he once loved.

I found the juxtaposition and eventual intersection of these two stories satisfying and interesting, I enjoyed the filth and grit of London's darker side. And while there was, in my opinion, one or two things that were just slightly too coincidental for my taste, I still enjoyed this novel and the stories that it incorporated.

I thought it was well written and well paced and if I had to offer any criticism it would have been for the author to have included more physical descriptors of the main characters and to make this novel longer. It was a quick read at just over two hundred and thirty pages.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did feel at the edge of London's past looking in, although I don't the objective knowledge to deem whether the descriptions are real or not. The author did not hold back on commentary on the poverty, gambling and prostitution.

[Jan-e · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that I barely remember anything but the barest bones of this novel probably doesn't speak too well for its qualities. It was mildly interesting, and not *badly* written (I tend to recollect the bad stuff as much as the excellent) - just nothing extraordinary or memorable.