Lightborne

A stunning debut on queer love, betrayal and survival in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O'Farrell. ________________ 'Vivid, punchy, brilliantly original' SUNDAY TIMES 'Hugely impressive, visceral and moving' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Imaginative, atmospheric, and heart-poundingly tense' NEIL BLACKMORE _______________________ Kit Marlowe: playwright, poet, lover. In the plague-stricken streets of Elizabethan England, Kit flirts with danger, leaving a trail of enemies and old flames in his wake. His plays are a roaring success; he seems destined for greatness. But the queen's eyes are everywhere and the air is laced with paranoia. When Marlowe is arrested on charges of treason, heresy and sodomy - all of which are punishable by death - he is released on bail with the help of Thomas Walsingham, a man he presumes to be his friend, but who has in fact hired the infamous assassin Robin Poley to take care of Marlowe, fearing his own sins may come to light. Now, with the queen's spies, the vengeful Baines, and the double-crossing Poley closing in, Marlowe's last friend in the world is Ingram Frizer, a total stranger who is obsessed with his plays, and who will, within ten days' time, become first Marlowe's lover, and then his killer. Richly atmospheric, emotionally devastating and heartrendingly imagined, Lightborne is a tender, thrilling tale of one of our most famous playwrights, and a love that flourishes within the margins. ______________ More praise for Lightborne 'Exerts a powerful pull' IRISH TIMES 'The kind of brilliant writing that rescues historical fiction from the museum' JOSEPH O'CONNOR 'A deeply impressive achievement, meticulously researched and fabulously rendered' NIALL BOURKE

Hesse Phillips (she/they) was raised next-door to a chicken farm in rural Pennsylvania but now lives in Spain. Much of their early life was spent in the theatre, where they developed a love for Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan/Jacobean dramatists which carried over into academics, earning a BA in theatre history at Marlboro College, Vermont, and later a PhD in Drama from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. While writing their undergraduate thesis on Edward II, they also began working on a novel about Christopher Marlowe which would eventually become Lightborne. Hesse's poetry and prose have appeared in The Bridport Review, the époque press é-zine, Roi Fainéant Press, Emerge Literary Journal, Erato Magazine, and Pangyrus, among others. They are a proud graduate of Grub Street Boston's acclaimed Novel Incubator program.