Any Marlowe fans in the audience? Take note! A new fictionalized account of Kit’s life is now available from Endeavor Press:
Christopher Marlowe: poet, playwright, lover, brawler, spy.
Protestant England is threatened by Catholic powers on the continent. Catholic conspirators plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and a planned invasion of England has the backing of Rome. Absolved of allegiance to the Queen, whom the Pope has excommunicated, papists in England are persecuted and priests who minister to them are publicly tortured and executed.
Sir Francis Walsingham, chief of the Queen’s secret service, maintains a spy network to monitor the activities of Catholics in England and on the continent. Many of his spies are students recruited at Cambridge, and Christopher Marlowe, known as Kit, is one of them.
Kit Marlowe’s first assignment is to infiltrate a conspiracy to assassinate the Queen. He wins the trust of the conspirators and is instrumental in exposing them, then witnesses their ghastly execution at Tyburn. Determined to give up the dirty business of spying, Kit returns to Cambridge
He acquires a patron, Tom Walsingham, cousin of Sir Francis, and begins his meteoric rise as a dramatist.
Through his rising reputation as a dramatist and his connections, Kit becomes a member of circles that include such prominent figures as Sir Walter Raleigh and the so-called School of Night. One evening he meets William Shakespeare and his dark mistress.
But while he enjoys the friendship of some powerful figures, his quick temper, barbed tongue and fearlessly open mind earn him the enmity of others, including someone who plots his assassination.
Horses of the Night is a magisterial work of historical fiction, vividly bringing to life both this turbulent period of history and the multi-faceted life of one of Britain’s most revered literary figures.