The Zig Zag Girl – Facts

The novel takes place in Brighton in 1950. Brighton is a seaside resort in the county of East Sussex. It is a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove, created from the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove. Brighton is located on the south coast of England, positioned 76 km south of London.

Edgar has his digs in Hanover, but at the end of the book he wants to move. Hanover is an area within the city of Brighton and Hove.

When Edgar contacts Max, the latter is in Eastbourne. Eastbourne is a town, seaside resort and borough in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex on the south coast of England, 31 km east of Brighton.

All Max owns is a Bentley. Bentley Motors Limited (/ˈbɛntli/) is a British manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs.

The police car that Edgar drives is a Wolseley. Wolseley Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the Vickers armaments combine in conjunction with Herbert Austin. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the Edwardian era. The Vickers brothers died and, without their guidance, Wolseley expanded rapidly after the war, manufacturing 12,000 cars in 1921, and remained the biggest motor manufacturer in Britain.

The first victim is murdered, and the modus operandi resembles a magic trick, the zig zag girl. The Zig-Zag Girl illusion is a stage illusion akin to the more famous sawing a woman in half illusion. In the Zig-Zag illusion, a magician divides an assistant into thirds, only to have them emerge from the illusion at the end of the performance completely unharmed.

Max is a magician who performs in variety shows, very popular at the time. Variety shows, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism.

Scarborough is where Max performs next. Scarborough  is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire.

When Max and Tony talk about show business, Tony mentions Milton Berle as a television star in America. Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. Berle’s career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television.

Edgar goes to see Ethel’s husband on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight  is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

When Ruby tells Edgar that she wants to be a magician, she mentions Eusapia Palladino as a woman who was a magician in her time. Eusapia Palladino (21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed to possess extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through her spirit guide John King, and other related supernatural phenomena. She convinced many of her powers, but was caught in deceptive trickery throughout her career. Magicians including Harry Houdini, and skeptics who evaluated her claims concluded that none of her phenomena were genuine and she was a clever trickster.

Edgar originally comes from Esher in Surrey. Esher  is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole.

Bill and Jean live in Wembley. Wembley is the principal town of the borough of Brent in north west London, England, about 13 km west-northwest of Charing Cross.

Great Yarmouth is where they find the Great Diablo. Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town in Norfolk, England, straddling the mouth of the River Yare, some 30 km east of Norwich.

Max and Edgar mention that the top bill in a theatre in Great Yarmouth is Tommy Cooper. Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a British prop comedian and magician. He habitually wore a red fez, and his appearance was large and lumbering.

Hastings is where Max has the performance when he and Edgar are almost killed. Hastings  is a seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, 39 km east to the county town of Lewes and 85 km south east of London.

The author tells us that the Magic Men featured in the book is a fictitious group, but it is based on the Magic Gang led by Jasper Maskelyne in Egypt in WW2. Jasper Maskelyne (1902–1973) was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. Maskelyne joined the Royal Engineers when the Second World War broke out, thinking that his skills could be used in camouflage. Maskelyne was then briefly a member of Geoffrey Barkas’s camouflage unit at Helwan, near Cairo, which was set up in November 1941.