Ros Barber has won the Desmond Elliot prize for debut fiction with this novel – it sounds intriguing
The Marlowe Papers: a novel in verse
Here’s the synopsis
In 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now let Christopher Marlowe tell you the truth: that his ‘death’ was an elaborate ruse to avoid his being hanged for heresy, and that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding as one William Shakespeare
“My name means more, and yet I shrug it off / like reptile skin, adopt some alias / that huffs forgettable, to snuff the flame / that now would be the death of me. Anon, / now Christopher is too much cross to bear,” Barber