The Umbrella Man

About the show

Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be downtown, on Main Street.

On the sidewalks, the crowds are fifty deep, a wall of noise and celebration. Everyone thinks this is the place to be. A few blocks away, in Dealey Plaza, the air is different. There is no ticker tape here. The crowds are thin. A dressmaker with vertigo films the action while balanced on a concrete plinth. In this quiet corner, there’s a man opening an umbrella even though it isn’t raining, a construction worker in a hard hat who claims he was sent here by God, three tramps who will shortly be arrested, an unidentified witness known only as the Babushka Lady, and many more. This is not a book about conspiracies or a lone gunman.

This is a book about memory, about how we construct our shared history, and about what happens when your life is defined by a single, fleeting moment. It’s about a group of real people who opted out of the main event before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, only to find themselves accidental witnesses to the most scrutinised six seconds of the twentieth century. Martin Fitzgerald is an author and screenwriter from London. His first book, Ruth and Martin’s Album Club (2017), was a collection of essays on classic albums followed by reviews from celebrities hearing them for the first time. It featured contributions from Richard Osman, Ian Rankin, Bonnie Greer and many more.