''The Marlowe Papers'' is a novel by

Ros Barber Rosalind Barber (born 1964) is an English novelist, poet and academic. Education She has a BSc in Biology, an MA in creative writing, the arts and education, and a PhD in English literature, all from the University of Sussex. She also has an Op ...

published in 2012. It won the Hoffman Prize in 2011, the

Desmond Elliott Prize The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The winning novel can be from any genre of fiction and must exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner receiv ...

in 2013 and was joint-winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. The novel, written in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...

, is a story about the English 16th century poet Christopher Marlowe, contemporary of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. In this tale, Marlowe's murder in 1593 is a fake and he lives on to write the plays and poems ascribed to Shakespeare. The Desmond Elliott Prize judges called the book a "unique historical conspiracy story". According to Barber, she has encountered hostility because of the novel's Marlovian premise. She says, "It's a work of fiction. You can believe that Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works and still enjoy it." The book was adapted as a play by Barber and Nicola Haydn, performed by Jamie Martin in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marlowe Papers Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship Cultural depictions of Christopher Marlowe Novels about William Shakespeare Novels set in the 16th century Shakespeare authorship fiction