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Lightborne

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Lightborne

By: Hesse Phillips
Narrated by: Will Watt
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About this listen

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.

©2024 Hesse Phillips (P)2024 W. F. Howes Ltd Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Renaissance Heartfelt
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Despite the ending of this book not being in doubt (Kit Marlowe's death), it does a great job of drawing you into the living underbelly of Elizabethan London. Beneath the finery, madrigals, plays, and the glories of Elizabeth's court, lies a writhing mass of informers, spies, paid assassins, and those who take pleasure from the pain caused to those accused. By way of content warning, violence isn't shied away from. It could hardly be given the subject matter, but neither is it dwelt on. Brutality was real. The power of the queen (and those who served her) almost without check.

Hesse Phillips focuses on Marlowe's last few days, weaving a dark, deep, dangerous tale where any joy or affection flares briefly. None of the characters are loveable - they all have too much to lose - and yet, I cared about Marlowe. Caught as he is, there's a fascination in seeing everything play out. You are immersed in Elizabethan London and here, for once, the details serve to make everything vivid. And that also goes for the writing. The author manages to write in a way that suggests the period without once lapsing into mock Shakespeare / parody.

Will Watt reads excellently. Recommended.

A dark, deep, and dangerous tale

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