University Library helps staff member complete 23-year biography project

Mike Simpson, Content Editor in the University’s Corporate Communications Team, credits the University’s Charles Wilson Library with helping him complete his new book, Elsa Lanchester: Bride of the Hunchback.

Published this month in hardback by award-winning specialist publisher FAB Press, Mike’s book is the definitive biography of the actress Elsa Lanchester. Best known for playing the title role in the classic horror film Bride of Frankenstein, Lanchester was married to actor Charles Laughton, whose career – including starring in The Hunchback of Notre Dame – has historically overshadowed his wife’s.

Mike began work on the book in 2003, five years before joining the University, but left it half-completed for a decade. When he returned to the project in 2019, he found that the University Library provided online resources that could help him complete the book.

“Initially, I had very little to work with except a few published biographies of Charles Laughton,” says Mike.

“I would periodically visit the British Film Institute in London to spend a day examining old trade magazines for mentions of Elsa’s films, but the useful content was very sparse.”

While the book languished on Mike’s laptop, new technology enabled newspapers to create searchable digital archives of their back issues. Many of these, although behind paywalls, are available free to University of Leicester students and staff via the Charles Wilson Library.

“Digital newspaper archives have completely changed historical and biographical research,” says Mike, whose previous book Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams was serialised in The Times.

“I was able to easily find every mention of Elsa Lanchester in all the major British and American newspapers: news stories, interviews, reviews, adverts, even radio and TV listings. By logging into the Library website, I had access to an incredible amount of original material that completely changed the focus of the book.”

Elsa Lanchester: Bride of the Hunchback by MJ Simpson is the first book to tell the full story of the actress’s life and career, finally placing Lanchester on the same level as her more acclaimed husband. Over the course of seven decades, stretching from the silent era to the early 1980s, Lanchester made more than 60 films, as well as numerous radio and television shows. Born in London in 1902, she was a West End star in the 1920s before moving to Hollywood, where she was twice nominated for an Oscar. Her most famous films include Bell, Book and Candle, Witness for the Prosecution, The Bishop’s Wife and Mary Poppins. She died in 1986, aged 84.

Mike’s book, which runs to 592 pages and includes more than 200 rare or unseen photographs, will be available from Amazon later this month, following its official launch at a film festival in Manchester. It is currently available for pre-order direct from the publisher in a special limited edition version.