Author(s): Peter Wells

New Zealand Literature

Remittance men were sent away from Britain to live in a colony on a small and regular sum - a remittance. Usually behind them was some disgrace or scandal, a secret that each man carried, often to the grave. Scandal and secrets are at the heart of IRIDESCENCE, a novel that spans two decades of the Victorian age. It follows the intrigues and sexual shenanigans of the theatre world in a brilliantly amoral London to the small and dusty town of Napier in New Zealand. Can you keep a secret? Samuel Barton, a remittance man, is blown into Napier in 1871, after an undisclosed scandal. He is damaged goods, but he carries with him an earring made up of fabulous jewels. With this earring he will buy his freedom. As we follow the story of the jewel, so Samuel Barton's secret life is revealed, piece by piece. We are taken into the very heart of a brilliant coterie of Londoners, for whom make-believe and secrets are their very soul. But what happens when life on the stage is taken into the streets? The world of make-believe explodes. Can you keep a secret? Samuel Barton could. To his grave.