A Fine Madness by Alan Judd

A captivating espionage novel that explores the life of theatrical genius—and spy—Christopher Marlowe, whose violent death remains one of the most fascinating mysteries of the Elizabethan Age.

In Elizabethan England, the queen’s chief spymaster, Francis Walsingham, and his team of agents must maintain the highest levels of vigilance to ward off Catholic plots and an ever-present threat of invasion from Spain.

One agent in particular—a young Cambridge undergraduate of humble origins, controversial beliefs, and literary genius who goes by the name of Kit Marlowe—is relentless in his pursuit of intelligence for the Crown. When he is killed outside an inn in Deptford, his mysterious death becomes the subject of rumor and suspicion that are never satisfactorily resolved.

Years later, when Thomas Phelippes, a former colleague of Marlowe’s, finds himself imprisoned in the Tower of London, there is one thing that might give him his freedom back. He must give the king every detail he is able to recall about his murdered friend’s life—and death. But why is King James so fascinated about Kit Marlowe—and does Phelippes know enough to secure his own redemption?

Review: The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore

Synopsis: The kingdom of love is a frightening place. A dangerous place. What kind of fool wants to live there? How have I, Francis Bacon, well-known as the cleverest man in England, been caught in this trap? For years I survived the brutal games of the English court, driven by the whims of the idiot King James I - and finally, I was winning. Forget what my friends Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare say about love. I had that which men truly crave above all else: power.

But now, at the moment of my greatest success, a deadly alliance of my enemies has begun closing in on me. Led by the King's beautiful and poisonous lover Carr, this new alliance threatens to turn our foolish King against me, so that I may rot in the Tower.

I refuse to go down without a fight. I have concocted a brilliant new plan: I will find my own beguiling young man and supplant Carr in the King's bed, and take power for myself. All I need to do is find him, my beautiful and mysterious creature, my perfect chess move.

In the dangerous kingdom of love, those who understand desire win. And I intend to win, at all costs.

"I am the cleverest man in England, and its biggest moron"

Sir Francis Bacon - philosopher and statesman, attorney general, lawyer, lord chancellor, literary patron and humanist. A man who has been celebrated as the father of empiricism and the father of the scientific method; and one who was known - in his own time - as a "pederast" and "ganimed" .  

Our novel opens at the court King James VI & I - the year 1613.  Bacon is our narrator. He is at times, crude, rude, self centered, avaricious, always focusing on how he can further advance himself in the eyes of the king and attain wealth and position. He constantly muses that he is surrounding by enemies, and should they (not him) attain the upper hand, then he would be "... the midwife at the birth of my own execution .."

And Bacon's enemies themselves have the potential power over his advancement - there is Edward Coke - barrister, judge & politician - his long-time nemesis; Robert Carr - the King's current favourite; and the Howard family, headed by Thomas, 1st Earl of Suffolk, a rather well connected peer whose family were not averse to a bit of scheming and plotting and self-aggrandisement.

In order for Bacon to succeed, he must remove the obstacles in his path - first and foremost is the favourite Robert Carr. However, it is not that simple - more of a case of one step forward, two steps back, as Bacon's enemies seem to be just that little bit ahead of him.

Then the grand plan - replace the current favourite with a creature of his own making and whose loyalty will be to Bacon. Again - nothing is as straight forward - the search finally turns up one George Villiers, whereupon Bacon enters that "dangerous kingdom of love". Finally installing his favourite, Bacon finds that his triumph is shortlived. However, "Bacon lives to plot another day".

As our narrator, Bacon speaks directly to the the reader in language that is far from courtly; it is full of wit and satire, self-deprecating humor, crude observations and commentary, gossip and inuendo. It is a bawdy, sexually explicit tale that some will find refreshingly comical with a dash of Pythonesque tongue-in-cheek whilst others may find themselves tut-tutting and being personally offended whilst yet reading ever onward.

The author has taken some liberties with history when crafting this tale - Bacon's wife is conveniently forgotten whilethe court resembles something more akin to the set of a Carry On film (and strangely, I kept picturing King James as "Fat Bastard" from Austin Powers franchise).  Finally, like many other readers, I felt that the ending was a little rushed - but then again, the aim of the tale was documenting Bacon's role as royal pimp not documenting Bacon's life as a whole.

This is a fascinating period in history, full of salacious scandal, and inhouse politicking, so well worth a little side trip of exploration.

Further reading:

- King James' Favourites

- Sir Francis Bacon

Draft Copy - The King James Bible

A fragment of the earliest known draft of the King James Bible has been discovered in Cambridge. 

However, new controversies seem to arise from this discovery. After examination and investigation of the manuscript, it was reported that the King James Bible had discarded big chunks of the original text of the Bible. Several notable people and events were completely erased from this new version. According to Dr Miller, this might have happened either because of some politics of the age or simply because of the laziness of the translators.

This discovery helps us to see the degree to which human intervention at a particular period of time has affected the Bible. Though the King James Bible is considered, as mentioned above, the “Word of God”, the unearthing of this manuscript may indicate towards the fact that this version of the Bible was actually a product of ideas and notions of the translators.

read more here @ The New York News Day