Author’s note
on the text
| What
the Press said
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The
text The Wrong End of the World is an attempt to recount the personal experience of
a group of ordinary people thrust into an extraordinary situation, to tell a
story celebrating the resilience of the human spirit, as much as recounting an historical event. The main narrative of the play is taken from
George Loveless's pamphlet The Victims of Whiggery, written from a diary
he kept during his years of exile; when George speaks to the audience, the words
are his own. Similarly,
all letters and documents quoted (including the ‘Captain Swing’ notes) are
genuine, as are the main speeches in the trial; the examinations and cross-examinations
are expanded from press accounts, in the light of observations on the conduct of
the trial made by lawyers, MPs and Loveless himself.
Parliamentary
speeches I have adapted more freely; at that time Hansard's clerks recorded in
reported speech. Drama scenes are my invention, and for reasons of financial and artistic economy some characters (Legg, Spode, the Essex magistrate) are fusions of two or more real people. I have however tried to remain true to the facts, and honest to the people.
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