praise for BEYOND THE DARK RIVER MANUSCRIPT:

‘[Beyond the Dark River is an] utterly engaging work, and we’re very much looking forward to reading the completed draft... we’re delighted to be able to go some way towards supporting [Angela] in the writing of [Beyond the Dark River]... I have no doubt that [she] has a very bright future ahead of her with her writing.’

Cate Blake, Managing Editor of General Publishing,

Penguin Books Australia

‘[Angela] has hit upon a story that is original and intriguing, and which melds fact and fiction, and the past and the present, in fascinating and entertaining ways. The draft of [Beyond the Dark River] that I have read has many qualities. I particularly like the fact that for a novel of ideas with an obvious scholarly foundation, it is terrifically accessible. I believe we should welcome more novels like [Beyond the Dark River], that is, novels that are not afraid to be intelligent and that seek an intelligent readership.’

Patrick Allington, writer, editor, critic & researcher,

author of Figurehead (Black Inc., 2009)

‘It’s very engaging. The research is integrated well into the text, without too much exposition.’

Helen Barnes-Bully, Writing Consultant, Varuna

‘I LOVED it ...’

Lis Bastian, CEO, Varuna, The Writers’ House

praise for Oscar Wilde as a Character in Victorian Fiction (NEW YORK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007):

‘... [a] welcome new book ... [Kingston] argues convincingly that en masse [the portraits] build up an intimate picture of Wilde, casting a new light on his personal life and his milieu ... Kingston writes with enthusiasm and vigour, and sets the scene for each fictional portrayal by putting it in full biographical context, including tracing Wilde’s relationships with many of the writers. The sections on Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Aubrey Beardsley, Bram Stoker and George Bernard Shaw are particularly valuable ... Oscar Wilde’s appearances in Victorian fiction are of great importance but are just the beginning of the story ... There are many avenues open for further rewarding academic study. Angela Kingston has shown the way.’

Donald Mead, The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies

(No 34, January 2009)

‘[Kingston provides] a wealth of information about the striking number of late-Victorian short stories and novels that feature versions of Wilde ... All of the works that Kingston discusses show that Wilde had the capacity to inspire a very mixed bunch of fictions that frequently share an impulse to distort or exaggerate whatever their authors had come to know about him. Kingston's useful book will hopefully prompt further, more critical inquiries into the conflicted reasons why Wilde, throughout his career, became the subject of such lavish storytelling.’

Joseph Bristow, Victorian Studies (Vol 52, No 1, Autumn 2009)  

‘... an extremely informative study of the manifold perceptions of Wilde that existed during his lifetime, and of Wilde as an agent and object of scrutiny within his professional and social environment ... [Kingston’s] detailed research on authors’ lives and interconnections, which has uncovered a wealth of biographical detail beyond the standard biographies, as well as on the social, historical and political influences shaping the production of her text corpus, had led to an extraordinarily intricate and vivid depiction of the web of [Wilde’s] social and literary relations ... by unearthing a lot of information about lesser-known writers and positing them in relation to Wilde, Kingston has gone beyond a study of [Wilde’s reception] to create a sort of communal biography of writers, which allows the reader an informative glimpse at the literary scene in late nineteenth-century London and beyond ... a real biographical treat.’

Lucia Krämer, The Oscholars (No 46, September/October 2008)

‘This book fills an important gap in the field. Kingston brings together a broad range of works that reflect Wilde's influence during his lifetime and well beyond.  Its genre of annotated-bibliography-as-narrative stands as engaged criticism, contributing greatly to our knowledge of both the artist as critic and critic as artist. This is not straightforward biography, but rigorous textual analysis that broadens our understanding of Wilde as author and cultural subject.’

Frederick Roden, University of Connecticut, 2007