Heists and Historical Context: Why I Set My Novel During the Great Exhibition of 1851
Author M. K. Lobb shares what drew her to write a heist novel with a touch of magic set during the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London.
When plotting a heist, I think of there as being three key elements you need to identify right off the bat: the target, the team, and the tactics (yes, I purposely ensured the alliteration).
I’m sure those all seem obvious. Who makes up your ragtag team of thieves? What are they going to attempt to steal, and what’s their plan of action? But there’s a fourth element that, I would argue, is nearly as important: Where is your target? In other words, what location does your team need to infiltrate in order to succeed?
To Steal From Thieves is my third published book. It’s a young adult historical fantasy heist that I first conceived of nearly eight years ago. I’m a bit of a history buff, and my stories are often inspired by a particular time period or historical event. I remember being 21, desperate to write a story that might help me snag a literary agent, and scouring the internet for inspiration. That was the first time I learned about the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Held in London, England, the Exhibition was the first in a trend of world fairs organized with the intention of showcasing industrial and cultural achievements from around the globe. The approximately 13,000 exhibits were displayed in a futuristic iron and glass structure spanning over 990,000 square feet, and it was this building that first piqued my interest in the event—it was so incongruous with how I pictured the British Victorian era. The Crystal Palace, as this structure would come to be known, was the largest building in the world at the time.
The deeper I delved into the context surrounding its construction, the more I uncovered a striking sort of dualism. The Crystal Palace symbolized innovation. Modernity. A boundless optimism about human potential. At the same time, however, it stood as a dark monument to Britain’s colonial and industrial dominance, and a stark symbol of inequality. These seemingly endless juxtapositions made this a compelling location for crime, and that’s to say nothing of the maze-like galleries, priceless items, and intricate displays. Everything about the exhibition seems poised to emphasize greed and high stakes.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the target of a heist needs to be difficult to access. So much of the narrative tension relies on getting in and out of that particular place. What could be more difficult, I thought, than trying to access—and then escape—a building constructed almost entirely from glass?
The Crystal Palace itself is an evocative metaphor for themes of deception and vulnerability. It’s a setting that appears open and transparent, but hides intricate schemes and secrets, not least of which is its unspoken reliance on a foundation of imperialism. These complexities make it an ideal location for a tale of heists and subterfuge, because who wouldn’t want to see a place like that be stolen from?
The parallels draw themselves: In so many ways, the Exhibition was a display of the British Empire’s thievery and exploitation. Now it’s going to be robbed right back. With enough historical context, you almost can’t help but root for the characters to succeed before they’re even introduced.
To Steal From Thieves isn’t just historical fiction, though. It’s a historical fantasy. Despite drawing the world from maps of 1850s London and scouring the research of Professor Jeffrey A. Auerbach, I also created the imaginary study of ‘alchemology’—a collision of alchemy and mechanics with a heavy dose of magic. The Victorian obsession with scientific discovery and spectacle is the perfect foundation for an alternate history where magic and machinery coexist, and I’m hardly the first to make use of it. Of course, it also made for a vastly interesting heist plan, as the characters rely on illegal magical items to pull off their scheme.
Zaria, the female main character, is the one who creates these magical items. She ends up being the linchpin of the heist team, which is comprised of four teens who live in the slums and arrived in London through either their own immigration or their parents’. Showing their circumstances in contrast to the sheer scale and grandeur of the Great Exhibition allowed me to explore the way progress can occur parallel to repression. London in the 1850s was marked by social and technological upheavals, but innovation still coexisted with rigid class structures and strict gender roles. I wanted Zaria’s inventions to stand alongside those in the Crystal Palace, even though she functions in a world designed to exclude her and disregard her work.
I like to say that the Exhibition isn’t just a setting but rather a character in its own right—a shimmering, fragile monolith of an age obsessed with progress and spectacle. It’s an ideal backdrop for a story that blends fantasy, intrigue, and fiercely determined characters who’ve learned that sometimes the only way to get something is to take it by force. The book’s title refers not only to the characters’ plans to double-cross one another, but also to their plot to steal from such a place that so flagrantly exemplifies British imperialism. By anchoring To Steal From Thieves in this iconic venue, I wanted to connect the past with contemporary questions of agency, ethics, and deception, crafting a story that I hope feels both timeless and urgently modern.
Check out M. K. Lobb's To Steal From Thieves here:
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