A writer of unparalled originality and imagination.
Kit Whitfield is a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge and completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.Her first novel, Bareback (published in the US as Benighted) was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award.She lives in London.
Whitfield (Benighted) creates a fantasy Earth both instantly recognizable and drastically changed: history was altered by the deepsmen, merfolk who first made an appearance at Venice during the Middle Ages and now, a few centuries later, control the seas. They insist that earthly rulers be part-deepsmen, placing halfbreed children such as Henry, terrified to be washed up on shore after five years underwater, and Anne, a king's clumsy granddaughter, in play for the English throne. The tale's style is formal and historical, packed thick with detail both overt and subtle. Anne is convincing as "inconvenient" royalty, the kind the family would rather forget, while Henry embodies the deepsmen's unhuman priorities and desires. Supporting characters, most neither wholly good nor wholly wicked, are given in stark, memorable detail. Fans of English history, dense prose and high-level political maneuvering will love it. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
A powerfully intelligent novel * Independent *
Ms Whitfield [shows] undoubted powers of imagination and literary
talent * Daily Mail *
It's a brilliantly realised picture of a medieval England that
never was, and a Machiavellian meditation on what must be done to
seize, wield and maintain power -- Brandon Robshaw * Independent on
Sunday *
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