Jasper Kent (born 1968) is an English author and composer. As a composer his work is generally in the field of musical theatre and his novel series include the Danilov Quintet and the Charlie Woolf Mysteries.
Biography
Born in
Worcestershire, England, Jasper was educated at
King Edward's School, Birmingham and read
Natural Sciences (specializing in theoretical physics) at
Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge
Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
. After graduating he worked as a software developer and consultant focusing on
object-oriented languages
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "Object (computer science), objects", which can contain data and Computer program, code. The data is in the form of Field (computer science), fields (often kno ...
such as
C++ and
C# and
template metaprogramming. Notable clients have included
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...
,
Deloitte and Touche,
BP,
Hughes Aircraft and the
UNICC. Jasper also provides training courses for
Learning Tree International.
Kent has worked for almost twenty years in musical theatre as a singer, instrumentalist, musical director and composer. He has performed backing vocals for various artistes including
Hinge and Bracket,
Stig Rossen
Stig Rossen (born 14 June 1962) is a Danish singer and actor. He is known for his roles in musicals, especially playing Valjean in ''Les Misérables''. He has also participated in Melodi Grand Prix, the Danish prelude to the Eurovision Song Contes ...
and
Russell Watson
Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. He began singing as a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club. He came to attention in 1999 when he sang "God ...
and in the role of musical director has conducted, amongst others,
Lucy Montgomery and
Daniel Boys.
His four complete musicals are ''Writer’s Cramp'' and ''Malvolio’s Revenge'' (both written with Robert Renton) and ''The Promised Land'' and ''Remember! Remember!'' (with Robert Piatt and Robert Starr). ''The Promised Land'' was commissioned for and performed as part of the
Jerusalem 3000
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
celebrations in 1996. ''Remember! Remember!'', a musical dramatization of the events of the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605, has been produced as a studio CD recording and was premiered in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
,
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, England in October 2008.
Jasper lives in the coastal Sussex town of
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
.
Novels
Jasper is best known as the author of ''Twelve'', a supernatural historical thriller set during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. The website Fantasy Book Review has ranked ''Twelve'' in sixth place in its list of all-time greatest historical fantasy novels. It has been translated into French, Polish, Italian and Turkish.
''Twelve'' is the first novel in the Danilov Quintet, which spans Russian history from the French invasion of 1812 to the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
of 1917.
[http://www.jasperkent.com/#DanilovQuintet-Twelve Jasper Kent's official website] The second instalment, ''Thirteen Years Later'', culminating in the
Decembrist Uprising of 1825, was released in the UK in 2010, the third, ''The Third Section'', in 2011 and the fourth, ''The People's Will'', in 2013. The last book of the series, ''The Last Rite'', was published in 2014.
''Late Whitsun'' is the first Charlie Woolf Mystery, set in Brighton, England in 1938. It was published in 2016 and blends aspects of both murder mystery and espionage. Two further stories in the series have working titles of ''The Stalactite Man'' and ''To Muddy Death'' (a reference to the death of
Ophelia in
Hamlet).
Additionally, Jasper has written two as yet unpublished novels, ''Yours Etc''., ''Mr Sunday'', a murder mystery set in Brighton, and ''Sifr'', a contemporary thriller encompassing cryptography and the discoveries of
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiri ...
.
[http://www.johnjarrold.co.uk/clients/kent-jasper/ John Jarrold Literary Agency's website]
Published works
Books
The Danilov Quintet
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*
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Charlie Woolf
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Albums
*(2005) Remember! Remember! 2 Bob Productions.
References
External links
Jasper Kent's websiteOfficial website for ''Remember! Remember!''*
Story Behind People's Will by Jasper Kent - Online EssayREVIEW : The People's Will
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Jasper
1968 births
People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
British historical novelists
English crime fiction writers
English horror writers
Living people