Sir Henry Irving was the greatest actor of Victorian age and was thought of by Gladstone as his greatest contemporary. He transformed the theatre, in Britain and America, from a disreputable and marginal entertainment into being a respected, civilising and uplifting art form. His enthusiastic supporters, eager to see his every appearance, ranged from Queen Victoria to working men and housewives. At the Lyceum Theatre from 1878 to 1902 he set new standards both in acting, often partnered by Ellen Terry, and in production. In 1895 he became the first actor to receive a knighthood. His tours to America brought a revolution in acting practice to the New World. In Sir Henry Irving: An Actor and his World, published to mark the centenary of Irving's death, Jeffery Richards gives an account not only of Irving himself and of his career, but also of his whole impact on the Victorian Theatre and on Victorian life as a whole.