Engaging Miss Laura

Engaging Miss Laura explores the life and times of a young woman living in mid-Victorian Plymouth. In her letter to the editor of the Western Morning News, published in the inaugural edition of 3 January 1860, she asked if an Engagements column might be included besides the traditional Births, Marriages and Deaths. The charming and persuasive correspondence touched on a number of contemporary issues, and these are explored in greater depth in the book. By interweaving different historical elements - personal, local, national and international - the significance of the period 1859/60 will be appreciated. The letter was simply signed LAURA. But just who was Laura, and what impact, if any, did she make on her times? The story reveals a lost social world, a physical world that would largely be destroyed by the Plymouth Blitz, and sheds light on the life of the Engaging Miss Laura.