A FORMER Keighley woman’s book about the dangerous world of Elizabethan child actors has been shortlisted for a major prize.

Julie Ackroyd, a former assistant director with the BBC, could win the annual book prize from the Society for Theatre Research.

Her in-depth study of the 17th-century London theatre world is competing against books from leading figures such as celebrated theatre director Nicholas Hytner.

Julie, 47, whose mother still lives in Keighley, did work experience at the Keighley News as a teenager dreaming of a career in the creative industries.

She studied at film school in London and took up a job with the BBC, working her way up to assistant director on various TV programmes before being made redundant about 18 years ago.

While at the BBC Julie had already studied for an open arts degree and subsequently a Masters degree, and with a growing interest in history and the theatre, she became a tutor with the Open University, supervising students across the South and Midlands.

The research Julie carried out for her PhD eventually formed the basis of her book, Child Actors on the London Stage c.1600: Their Education, Recruitment and Theatrical Success.

She had become fascinated by the subject after finding a gallery of portraits of actors from Elizabeth times, including the little-known Nathan Field.

She said: “I discovered he had been kidnapped at the age of 13 and forced to be an actor. I found there were another seven boys who had been kidnapped in a similar way.”

Julie’s book, published in hardback last year, will soon be released in paperback, and Julie also plans to write a “less heavy and academic” version for the mainstream market.

In 2007 Julie was on the judging panel for the Olivier Theatre Awards, watching 83 theatre productions in three months and becoming one of the first people to champion actor Benedict Cumberbatch, long before he achieved fame in TV’s Sherlock.

Julie has been an adviser on the Chaucer Press’s English translation of The Life and Times of William Shakespeare, and she writes regularly for Ancient History Magazine..

Julie is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and spent time as a Research Fellow, funded by the Wellcome Trust, at the Science Museum.