Maurice was born in 1885, the youngest of three children. He found local fame as a child who could play female roles, as well as essaying a brilliant performance as Little Lord Fauntleroy, a part which had previously been taken only by girls. Maurice had considerable talent and charm, although he did not proceed with acting in his adult years. One of his last roles was, extraordinarily, the part of David Garrick, the famous actor of Georgian England. He was 16 at the time.

Little was known about Maurice Pollack until Peter Farrer spent years researching this definitive study. The book is a paperback, but stoutly bound, and illustrated with some really beautiful photographs of Maurice in female (and male) roles. He was certainly an extraordinary and very comely child.

Sadly, he died in the Great War, only a few weeks before the armistice, at the age of 33.

Peter Farrer is an excellent writer, and his researches have produced an outstanding book which has a thorough bibliography, and an index of players and performers (a really complete index would have been nice, but this is a minor criticism). If readers are interested in reading the full story, and seeing many pictures of Maurice clad in his beautiful frills and flounces, as well as in the belaced velvet suit of what was his greatest success, the book is available via Peter Farrer's website: