Ian Kelly wins Theatre Book Prize

Ian Kelly’s Mr Foote’s Other Leg has been awarded this year’s Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize.Mr Foote’s Other Leg tells the tale of one of the most celebrated – and infamous – managers in the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s history: Samuel Foote. Foote’s gift for mimicry and satire held all of London society enthralled and appalled in equal measure. His determination to have the Little Theatre in The Hay become a Royal Patent theatre cost him his leg – and eventually his life via one of the most scandalous episodes of Georgian London. Ian Kelly’s incredible talent as an author brings Foote and his newly created Theatre Royal Haymarket so vividly to life that you can almost hear him from the stalls.The Theatre Royal Haymarket assisted Ian Kelly with his research for the book and in October 2012 helped launch Mr Foote’s Other Leg in a glorious star studded event hosted by the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the Bancroft Stalls Bar.Ian Kelly beat off competition from In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller by Kate Bassett, My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall by John Major, The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama edited by Thomas Betteridge and Greg Walker and Lena Ashwell: Actress, patriot, pioneer by Margaret Leask to win the Theatre Book Prize awarded by the Society for Theatre Research.The Theatre Book Prize was established to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Society for Theatre Research which was founded in 1948. It was first awarded for books published in 1997. Its aim is to encourage the writing and publication of books on theatre history and practice, both those which present the theatre of the past and those which record contemporary theatre for the future. It is presented annually for a book on British or British related theatre which an independent panel of judges considers to be the best published during the year.This year’s panel of judges included actress Penelope Keith (pictured with Ian Kelly), Professor Gavin Henderson and theatre critic Henry Hitchings