An addition to the “Characters page” for my novel The Spyders of Burslem, for Jimmy Tunnicliffe, the ‘cunning’ man. The picture is not quite my character, for reasons that reading the novel will reveal, but it’s certainly evocative of the sort of look and has a suitable slightly-fey pose — and the dress is certainly spot-on for the time the novel is set.

Picture: Besom maker on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire in 1867. From the collections of Staffordshire Record Office.