page_title: Ki Longfellow
section_title: Music and plays
hierarchical_section_title: Ki Longfellow / Music and plays
caption_attribution_description: English: Ki &amp; Vivian Longfellow of the Thekla
context_page_description: Ki Longfellow is an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theater director and entrepreneur with dual citizenship in Britain. She is best known in the United States for her novel The Secret Magdalene. This is the first of her works exploring the divine feminine. In England, she is likely best known as the widow of Vivian Stanshall, the late musician, lead singer of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, songwriter, author, radio broadcaster and wit.
  The first of her novels to be published, China Blues and Chasing Women are mysteries and thrillers. In April 2013, the first of her Sam Russo Mysteries was published, part of a noir series set in and around New York City in the late 1940s. The fourth in the Sam Russo Mysteries was published in 2015. Walks Away Woman, about a neglected Arizona housewife walking out into the Sonoran Desert to die, was published in December 2013. On January 26, 2018, Ki's memoir of her husband, The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, a Fairytale of Grimm Art, illustrated by Ben Wickey, was released.
context_section_description: Longfellow and Stanshall wrote radio plays and songs together. In 1980, she edited Stanshall's only book, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End & Other Spots, published by Pete Townshend, of Eel Pie Publishing.  She also helped Stanshall with the script for the film version of Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, which starred Trevor Howard. 
  In late 1982, Longfellow discovered The Thekla, a ship she rescued and renovated with government funding. She moored it in the port of Bristol, where she adapted it as a theatre and restaurant. She hoped this would provide refuge for her hard-drinking, Valium-addicted, husband. The restaurant failed, but the theatre thrived and also built a reputation as a music venue. In late 1984, Stanshall joined her on the Old Profanity Showboat.
  In 1985, Stanshall and Longfellow wrote, produced, and staged their Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera aboard the Thekla. The orchestra was made up of local musicians and street buskers.  The show received excellent reviews. Later the popular opera was transferred to London's West End, where it was partly financed by Stephen Fry. Perhaps because the Stanshalls were not involved, it was not a financial success. In 2004, Sea Urchin Editions published the script of the original Stinkfoot, with an introduction by Longfellow. In 2010, it was produced in Bristol in a concert version.
  In 1986, Longfellow and Stanshall closed the theatre and moved into the Bristol home of their friend, actor David Rappaport.
caption: Longfellow with Vivian Stanshall in the hold of the Thekla
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