M J Trow

Taliesin Trow

Kit Marlowe was the bad boy of Elizabethan drama. His 'mighty line' of iambic pentameter transformed the miracle plays of the Middle Ages into modern drama and he paved the way for Shakespeare and a dozen other greats who stole his metre and his ideas. When he died, stabbed through the eye in what appeared to be a tavern brawl in Deptford in May 1593, he was only 29 and many people believed that he had met his just deserts. But Marlowe's death was not the result of a brawl. And it did not take place in a tavern. The facts tell a different story, one involving intrigue, espionage, alchemy and the highest in the land. Born the son of a shoemaker in Canterbury, Marlowe read Theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and was destined for a career in Elizabeth I's new Church of England. But in 1583, he moved to London and wrote dazzling new plays like Dido, Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine, the Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus. He was the 'Muse's darling', 'all fire and air' and the crowds flocked to his dramas at the Curtain, the Theatre and the Rose. But even before he left Cambridge, Kit Marlowe was recruited into the dangerous and murky world of espionage, perhaps by Nicholas Faunt, secretary to the queen's spymaster, Francis Walsingham. The religious world was split between Catholic and Protestant and there was a price on the queen's head - the pope himself had ordered the assassination of the English whore, the Jezebel, who had betrayed Catholicism. Walsingham's efforts and those of 'intelligencers' like Marlowe, were all designed to keep the queen and her country safe. Marlowe was a maverick, a whistle-blower, with outspoken views on religion, the government for which he worked and he was critical of the norms of behaviour. Almost certainly homosexual, at a time when that meant execution, he claimed that Christ had a homosexual relationship with John the Baptist. Or did he? Was all that merely propaganda, invented by the ever-growing list of enemies building up by 1593? This book offers a different interpretation to the death in Deptford. Marlowe knew too much about the Privy Council, the gang of four who effectively ran England under the queen. He openly defied them in his last plays - the Massacre at Paris and Edward II. And they, in turn, were keen to destroy him - 'His mouth must be stopped' - and stopped it was by a trio of agents operating at the highest level. The brutal murder of a young playwright at the peak of his powers has intrigued and captivated for over 400 years. This compelling journey through the evidence allows us to know, for the first time, who killed him.

A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England

Who Killed Kit Marlowe?

M. J. Trow

Maryanne Coleman

Richard Denham

Samantha Evergreen

Justin Alcala

Julia Cowan

Kyt Wright

Bethan White

Faye Irwin

The War is over, Britain has fallen. It wasn't necessarily that Britain had lost the Second World War. In fact, the Citizen Survivors would disagree whether they had simply bowed out, if it was still raging on somewhere else, or whether the whole thing was simply an unfortunate misunderstanding that they were better off having no part of. Citizen Survivors: The Red Book is a nightmarish black comedy, retelling history's most famous 'what if?’ - Not only what if Britain lost World War Two, but what would that mean for those who survived? The Red Book is a dystopian anthology containing eleven short stories written by ten authors. Often tragic, often spooky, often funny, but always weird. Mirroring and inspired by many historical realities and possibilities, join the Citizen Survivors as they try to piece together what has happened to their world and how they confront their new reality. The Inmate by Maryanne Coleman The Reverend by M. J. Trow The Policeman by Kyt Wright The Agent by Maryanne Coleman The Widow by Julia Cowan The Busker by Taliesin Trow The Arbitrator by Faye Irwin The Soldier by Richard Denham The Entrepreneur by Justin Alcala The Housewife by Samantha Evergreen The Partisan by Bethan White Praise for Citizen Survivors: The Red Book: ‘Psychological horror may have just found its newest champion.’ – Gillian Philip ‘It’s said that good fiction's job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, this book delivers that challenge in spades.’ – Georgia Hill ‘A genre-defying triumph. Franz Kafka, David Lynch and Philip K. Dick would be proud of this off-kilter anthology.’ – Russell Brown ‘Either a work of genius, a work of insanity or both! You’ll start as lost as the characters as you piece together the world of the Citizen Survivors in this unsettling and addictive read.’ – Nikki Turner ‘This book is like a good puzzle that teasingly never quite comes together, leaving you in anticipation for more clues about this nightmarish world.’ – Sarah Anne Carter

Citizen Survivors: The Red Book

Kit Marlowe was the bad boy of Elizabethan drama. His ‘mighty line’ of iambic pentameter transformed the miracle plays of the Middle Ages into modern drama and he paved the way for Shakespeare and a dozen other greats who stole his metre and his ideas. When he died, stabbed through the eye in what appeared to be a tavern brawl in Deptford in May 1593, he was only 29 and many people believed that he had met his just deserts. ​ But Marlowe’s death was not the result of a brawl. And it did not take place in a tavern. The facts tell a different story, one involving intrigue, espionage, alchemy and the highest in the land. ​ Born the son of a shoemaker in Canterbury, Marlowe read Theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and was destined for a career in Elizabeth I’s new Church of England. But in 1583, he moved to London and wrote dazzling new plays like Dido, Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine, the Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus. He was the ‘Muse’s darling’, ‘all fire and air’ and the crowds flocked to his dramas at the Curtain, the Theatre and the Rose. ​ But even before he left Cambridge, Kit Marlowe was recruited into the dangerous and murky world of espionage, perhaps by Nicholas Faunt, secretary to the queen’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham. The religious world was split between Catholic and Protestant and there was a price on the queen’s head - the pope himself had ordered the assassination of the English whore, the Jezebel, who had betrayed Catholicism. Walsingham’s efforts and those of ‘intelligencers’ like Marlowe, were all designed to keep the queen and her country safe. ​ Marlowe was a maverick, a whistle-blower, with outspoken views on religion, the government for which he worked and he was critical of the norms of behaviour. Almost certainly homosexual, at a time when that meant execution, he claimed that Christ had a homosexual relationship with John the Baptist. Or did he? Was all that merely propaganda, invented by the ever-growing list of enemies building up by 1593? This book offers a different interpretation to the death in Deptford. Marlowe knew too much about the Privy Council, the gang of four who effectively ran England under the queen. He openly defied them in his last plays – the Massacre at Paris and Edward II. And they, in turn, were keen to destroy him – ‘His mouth must be stopped’ – and stopped it was by a trio of agents operating at the highest level. ​ The brutal murder of a young playwright at the peak of his powers has intrigued and captivated for over 400 years. This compelling journey through the evidence allows us to know, for the first time, who killed him.

Who Killed Kit Marlowe?: A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England

Taliesin Trow

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