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Dr John Woolf is a historian and researcher. He has most recently co-written the bestselling Audible book Victorian Secrets with Stephen Fry and is currently working on a new screenplay set in the Victorian circus for the makers of Downton Abbey. Having read history at the University of Cambridge John went on to obtain a PhD on nineteenth-century freak shows. Since then John has developed the BBC4 series The Real Tom Thumb: History's Smallest Superstar, been featured in the BBC4 documentary Dwarfs in Art and was assistant producer for Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled, also for BBC4 and narrated by A. N. Wilson. In 2017 The Wonders was awarded the Biographers Club Tony Lothian Prize for the best proposal for an uncommissioned first biography.
A promising young historian with a taste for the exotic. -- Stephen Fry A personality-driven history of the 'freak' show... alive and informative. * The Spectator * Nuanced and complex, Woolf deftly shows there are stories of empowerment alongside those of exploitation. Woolf gives these marginalised performers a voice - a voice that was rarely heard in life' * BBC History Magazine * Woolf balances colourful, detailed storytelling with sharp-eyed cultural unpacking * Publishers Weekly * Fascinating and thought-provoking. A marvellously researched account of the freak industry - an extraordinary side of Victorian life which has been ignored for too long. * Jane Ridley, author of Bertie * A wonderfully rich, compassionate and pungent potpourri of the extraordinary, the unusual and the rare. Turns our notions of Victorian prudery, propriety and voyeurism upside down. Brilliantly researched and written with great verve. * Neil McKenna, author of Fanny and Stella, and The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde * John Woolf's book will dazzle you with details of extraordinary lives, long underestimated by history. * Matthew Sweet, broadcaster and author of Inventing the Victorians * Highly readable. The life stories of those paid to be gazed at and ridiculed have been deftly teased from the archives, providing a sympathetic account of these amazing individuals. * Sarah Wise, author of Inconvenient People, and The Blackest Streets * As an actor and writer who has also performed in contemporary freak shows for many years, I find this book a refreshingly integrated and balanced account of these amazing lives. -- Mat Fraser, writer, disability artist and actor in 'American Horror Story, Freak Show' A remarkable book. Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, John Woolf tells a brilliant and vibrant history. -- Katharine Norbury, author of 'The Fish Ladder' There is so much to see at the Freak Show which Woolf provides his readers; and he makes it clear that it does the memory of these amazing artists a disservice to avert your eyes. -- Therese Oneill, author of 'Unmentionable' Explores with subtlety and consideration the many facets of humanity's strangeness. A really excellent book and an important study of the physically marginalized and neglected. -- Clive Bloom, author of 'Victoria's Madmen' Exceptional. The Wonders shines a bright light on the real human experiences behind Victorian freak spectacles. With carefully researched historical detail and a knack for storytelling, Woolf's style is impressive. -- Lillian Craton, author of 'The Victorian Freak Show' An intriguing and fascinating look into the world of 'freaks'. Beautifully researched and well written. -- Richard Butchins, award-winning artist and disabled filmmaker A 'remarkable social history' * The Guardian *
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