author
Edward Fordham Spence
1860–1932
A British barrister, King's Counsel, and longtime drama critic, he wrote with an insider’s feel for both the courtroom and the stage. His books range from theatre criticism to memoir and even angling, giving his work an appealingly wide reach.
1 Audiobook
Our Stage and Its Critics By "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette"
by Edward Fordham Spence
About the author
Born in 1860 and dying in 1932, Edward Fordham Spence built a career that joined law and literature. Records of his published work and biographical listings identify him as a barrister who later became a King's Counsel, as well as a writer connected with the theatre.
Spence is best known to many readers for Our Stage and Its Critics (1910), a collection linked to his work as "E.F.S." of The Westminster Gazette. He also published The Pike Fisher (1928), showing a very different side of his interests, and Bar and Buskin, a memoir of life in law and the theatre published near the end of his life.
That mix of legal experience, theatrical criticism, and personal reminiscence gives his writing a grounded, observant tone. For audiobook listeners, he offers a window into British cultural life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially the world of the stage as seen by someone who knew both public performance and professional argument from the inside.