By Celia's Arbour by Walter Besant and James Rice was first serialised in 1877 in The Graphic magazine. Besant, who grew up in Portsmouth, directed his not inconsiderable talent into a tale full of lyrical and precise description of the Portsmouth of his childhood. Rich, vivid and strongly psychological in content, it gives an extraordinarily broad view of Portsmouth society in the mid-19th Century. It places the walled and heavily fortified town at the heart of world events that seem to touch its inhabitants only obliquely, yet they ultimately affect every aspect of...