A Book of Secrets

A Book of Secrets tells the story of a West African girl hunting for her lostbrother through an Elizabethan underworld of spies, plots and secret Catholicprinting presses.Susan Charlewood is taken from Ghana (then known as Guinea) as a baby. Brought to England, she grows up as maidservant in a wealthy Catholic household. Living under a Protestant Queen in late 16th Century England, the family risk imprisonment or death unless they keep their faith hidden.When her mistress dies Susan is married off to a London printer who is deeply involved in the Catholic resistance. She finds herself embroiled in political and religious intrigue, all while trying to find her lost brother and discover the truth about her origins.In A Book of Secrets Kate Morrison explores the perils of voicing dissent in a state that demands outward conformity, at a time when England is taking its first steps into the long shadow of transatlantic slavery and old certainties about the shape of the universe itself are crumbling. A Book of Secrets gives a striking, compelling new perspective on the era, allowing one of the thousands of lost Elizabethan voices to speak out loud.

Kate Morrison is a British debut novelist was born in England. She studied English Literature at New Hall College, Cambridge and worked as a journalist and a press officer. ShecurrentlylivesinBristolwithherfamily.Morrison was mentored by Ros Barber, the award-winning author of The Marlowe Papers and Devotion. She was a visiting scholar with the Book, Text, and Place 1500-1700 Research Centre at Bath Spa University. Her short story “Sam Brown” won second prize in the 2011 Asham Award and is in the Asham Award Anthology, Something was There. A Book of Secrets was longlisted for the Mslexia Unpublished Novel Award in 2015