Table Of ContentCat Among Pigeons
the
J G
ULIA OLDING
CAT GOES TO SCHOOL
First published 2006
by Egmont UK Ltd
239 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SA
This edition published 2010
Text copyright © 2006 Julia Golding
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Bowles’s New Plan of London map courtesy of the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4052 3759 8
eBook ISBN 978 1 7803 1086 2
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Books (Cox and Wyman)
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www.juliagolding.co.uk
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For Grace, Robert, Olivia and
Miranda Amakye Saunders
THE CRITICS
‘A welcome return to the London stage for Drury Lane’s favourite child’ – JOHN
PHILIP KEMBLE
‘Cat Royal’s prose grips the reader like an ancient mariner intent on telling you
his tale (now there’s an idea . . .)’ – SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
‘Starched small linen all morning, admired daffodils with William, read Cat
Royal with great pleasure in evening’ – DOROTHY WORDSWORTH, extract from
her journal
‘Cat Royal serves no utilitarian function whatsoever – clearly a case for the
poorhouse’ – JEREMY BENTHAM
‘I have forbidden my children to read this pernicious stuff!’ – H. M. QUEEN
CHARLOTTE
‘Cat Royal gives us quite a giggle’ – DOROTHY JORDAN AND H.R.H. THE DUKE OF
CLARENCE
‘I’m sure Cat Royal must be a fake dreamt up by an educated gentleman!’ –
JAMES ‘OSSIAN’ MACPHERSON
‘Fit only for the bonfire’ – THE SOCIETY OF GENTLEMEN PLANTERS, JAMAICA
‘Her work is music to my ears!’ – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
‘Degenerate stuff – enough to cause a mutiny!’ – CAPTAIN WILLIAM BLIGH, late
of the Bounty
‘Her pen paints a picture better than a brush’ – SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
‘Not enough Scotsmen for my taste’ – WALTER SCOTT
‘A book that every right-thinking person in this nation of slave traders should
read and reflect upon’ – WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
A N R
OTE TO THE EADER
If you have not yet read the first instalment of my adventures, The Diamond of
Drury Lane, there are a few things you need to know. In that book, I explained
how I made friends with Pedro Hawkins, a former slave from Africa, during an
eventful balloon ride in Drury Lane. I recounted how, after Pedro’s theatrical
triumph, we became acquainted with the two children of the Duke of Avon: Lord
Francis and Lady Elizabeth (Frank and Lizzie to you). Together we saved a
cartooning rebel lord from the gallows and I narrowly escaped death myself.
Unfortunately, in the course of my adventures I managed to make myself the
enemy of Billy Shepherd, a ruthless gang leader. Something told me even then
that I hadn’t heard the last of him. If you want to find out what happened next,
read on.
Catherine ‘Cat’ Royal
LIST OF
PRINCIPAL
CHARACTERS
PROLOGUE Return of the Master
Act I SCENE 1 Paying the Price
SCENE 2 Abolitionists
SCENE 3 A Gentlemen’s Club
Act II SCENE 1 A Tempest
SCENE 2 Switched
SCENE 3 Snatched
Act III SCENE 1 Wolfsbane for Bruises
SCENE 2 Billy Shepherd Returns
SCENE 3 Rats’ Castle
Act IV SCENE 1 Electra-fying
SCENE 2 Old Jean’s Beagles
SCENE 3 Silence is Golden
Act V SCENE 1 Cargo on the Move
SCENE 2 Am I Not a Man and a Brother?
SCENE 3 The Price of Freedom
EPILOGUE Pigeons
GLOSSARY
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
IN THE THEATRE
MISS CATHERINE ‘CAT’ ROYAL – ward of the theatre
MR PEDRO HAWKINS – talented musician, a former slave under threat of recapture
MR SHERIDAN – playwright, politician, theatre owner
MR KEMBLE – actor-manager, best Shakespearean actor in the world
SIGNOR ANGELINI – musical director who thinks he is Pedro’s master
COVENT GARDEN MARKET
MR SYD FLETCHER – boxer, leader of the Butcher’s Boys
MR BILLY SHEPHERD – leader of rival gang who thinks he’s going up in the world
JOE ‘THE CARD’ MURRAY – one of Syd’s boys, street magician
THE DUKE’S HOUSEHOLD
LORD FRANCIS, OR FRANK – reluctant schoolboy, heir to a dukedom, master forger
LADY ELIZABETH, OR LIZZIE – his sister, who is annoying her mother by refusing
to elope
DUCHESS OF AVON – Lizzie and Frank’s mother, the peeress, formerly the singer
known as The Bristol Nightingale
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
THE HONORABLE CHARLES HENGRAVE, OR CHARLIE – a good sport and great
friend
DR VINCENT – the headmaster, very attached to his cane
MR CASTLETON – theatrically minded Latin master
MR RICHMOND – runty offspring of slave plantation owner
MR INGELS – his none-too-bright sidekick
THE ABOLITIONISTS
MR OLAUDAH EQUIANO – former slave, great traveller, leading light of abolition
movement
MR GRANVILLE SHARP – legal brains behind abolitionists
THE MISS MILLERS (PATIENCE, PRUDENCE AND FORTITUDE) – kind Quakers with
an unexpectedly powerful grip
MISS MILLY HENGRAVE – sister to Charlie with a talent for saying the wrong
thing
THE SLAVERS
MR KINGSTON HAWKINS – Pedro’s old master and a nasty piece of work
Actors, ballerinas, scandalized gentlemen, rioting schoolboys, et al.
