illustration: image source
My great-aunt Sylvia left me a somewhat bizarre inheritance in 1991 – a 100-year-old moustache in a box. People cheekily ask if the moustache actually was Sylvia’s! It wasn’t. It belonged to a Victorian freak-show host called Ambrose Oddfellow, who lopped it off for charity. Somehow, it ended up in my aunt’s house, where it took pride of place on her mantelpiece.
Having inherited the ’tash in my early 20s, I made it my quest to find out all I could about its mysterious benefactor. After I moved to Brighton, I delved into the history of Victorian freak shows and, before too long, was persuaded to attend a local séance and spiritual church in an attempt to ‘make contact’ with Oddfellow. While remaining sceptical of an afterlife, my moustache took me on numerous adventures, leading me to meditate on the objects in our lives and the life lessons they can teach us.