Jack Maggs

(Paperback, Main)

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You're a dead man if they find you.

Enigmatic ex-convict Jack Maggs returns from Australia to the murky streets of nineteenth-century London and embarks on a quest to find his 'son' Henry Phipps, who has mysteriously disappeared. Disguised as a footman, he joins the peculiar household of Phipps's neighbour, Percy Buckle, where he meets Tobias Oates, a young novelist and amateur mesmerist searching for inspiration. Striking a dangerous deal with Oates, Maggs becomes ensnared in a dazzling, distorted world of ambition, secrets and unexpected alliances.

Samuel Adamson's ingenious, wildly entertaining adaptation of Peter Carey's bestselling novel opened in November 2024, in a production by State Theatre Company South Australia.

Author Bio

Samuel Adamson's plays include: The Ballad of Hattie and James and Wife (Kiln Theatre), All About My Mother (from Almodvar; Old Vic), Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre), and A Chain Play (Almeida Theatre). Adaptations include: Mrs Affleck, from Ibsen's Little Eyolf, (National Theatre), A Doll's House (Southwark Playhouse); Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters; Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi; and a musical based on George MacDonald's The Light Princess, with Tori Amos (National Theatre).