The Marlowe Papers: longlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction (former Orange Prize) 2013, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2013, shortlisted for the Author’s Club First Novel Award 2013
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. . Ros Barber is a poet, novelist and scholar, author of critically-acclaimed verse novel The Marlowe Papers and poems including How to Leave the World That Worships ‘Should’. Some of her poems (including audio/video readings), reviews of her books, and her PhD thesis on the Shakespeare Authorship Question are all available on this site. She also has a blog. Click on your area of interest! |
“What can a dead man say that you will hear?” begins The Marlowe Papers, an epic alternate history written entirely in iambic pentameter. When said dead man is mercurial Renaissance poet Christopher Marlowe, who never met a kiss or a brawl he could resist, and when his voice is provided by the magnetic wordsmithery of first-time novelist Ros Barber, the answer is: everything. With the screw-tightening verve of a great thriller and the romantic pull of Renaissance poetry, the novel — which purports that Marlowe is the true author of William Shakespeare’s legendary oeuvre — is a gripping, lyrical, most unlikely page-turner.
- American Way, American Airlines in-flight magazine
