Andrew Zurcher – författare

Twelve Nights is the perfect fantasy novel for fans of the magical worlds of Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett. **********Kay felt everything change in the room around her. Everything. Kay's father is working late- as usual. Fed up, her mother bundles Kay and her sister into the car, and drives to his Cambridge college to collect him. But, the staff say nobody by his name has ever worked there. When they return home, Kay discovers a card left on her pillow: Will O. de Wisp, Gent. F.H.S.P. and Phillip R. T. Gibbet, Gent. F.H.S.P. K.Bith. REMOVALS. That night, Kay is woken by voices at her window: the voices of Will and Phillip, the Removers. But they are not human. And Kay shouldn't be able to see them. Except she can... **********Andrew Zurcher has created a world as captivating as Lyra's Oxford and Alice's Wonderland. Join Kay and the Removers on their incredible journey.

Fitz thinks he is an ordinary eleven-year-old and loves to turn simple things into mini-adventures, like sneaking next door and filching books from Mr Ahmadi's vast library of mysterious tomes, and goading the guard dog into giving breakneck chase. But one tranquil evening three sharp knocks on the front door change everything . . . 'I said I would come for him. He is my jewel. It is time. It is past time.'Now on the run from a threat that has been waiting his entire life, Fitz's only hope is to put his life in the hands of his enigmatic neighbour, Mr Ahmadi. Taken on as an apprentice in a secret society who keep all they really do cloaked in mystery, Fitz has to quickly learn the ropes within the most skilful, most powerful, most dangerous and wealthiest organisation in the world . . .

Edmund Spenser, Selected Letters and Other Papers provides the first published text of the diplomatic and personal papers written, copied, and handled by Spenser during his years of secretarial service and colonial planting in Ireland, 1580-1589. These manuscript letters and papers represent a rich resource for the study of Spenser's poetry and prose - particularly his allegorical epic The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596) and his study of Irish culture and government, A view of the present state of Ireland (1596) - giving unparalleled insight into the day-to-day administration of the New English government in Ireland, in both Dublin and Munster, during a time of constant war, diplomacy, social engineering, espionage, and plantation. In a generous introduction, Burlinson and Zurcher situate Spenser's Irish secretarial experience in its political and military contexts, survey the conditions and constraints of early modern secretaryship, and draw out the importance of the letters to the studies of Spenser's verse and prose. The selection (constituting about half of Spenser's known surviving papers) is fully annotated throughout with both textual and interpretative notes, which explain the dense and complex historical reference of the documents, and point readers toward further reading in both manuscript and printed sources. The volume also includes illustrations from several of Spenser's manuscripts, as well as an extensive set of appendices including biographical essays on Spenser's associates, a chronology, maps, and other materials.

Ralph Knevet's Supplement of the Faery Queene (1635) is a narrative and allegorical work, which weaves together a complex collection of tales and episodes, featuring knights, ladies, sorcerers, monsters, vertiginous fortresses and deadly battles – a chivalric romp in Spenser's cod medieval style. The poem shadows recent English history, and the major military and political events of the Thirty Years War. But the Supplement is also an ambitiously intertextual poem, weaving together materials from mythic, literary, historical, scientific, theological, and many other kinds of written sources. Its encyclopaedic ambitions combine with Knevet's historical focus to produce an allegorical epic poem of considerable interest and power. This new edition of Knevet's Supplement, the first scholarly text of the poem ever published, situates it in its literary, historical, biographical, and intellectual contexts. An extensive introduction and copious critical commentary, positioned at the back of the book, will enable students and scholars alike to access Knevet's complicated and enigmatic meanings, structures, and allusions.

Introduces a Renaissance masterpiece to a modern audience.This Guide will help new readers to understand and enjoy The Faerie Queene, drawing attention to its various ironies, its self-reflexive construction, its visual emphasis and the timeless ethical, political, and literary questions that it asks of all of us. The book includes key selections from the poem (each accompanied by a headnote, commentary and glosses), historical and critical discussions, teaching and learning plans and a guide to further resources in electronic and print media.Key Features* Contains substantial selections from The Faerie Queene * Provides an integrated introduction to Spenser's life, the intellectual and historical context of his writing and the poem's critical reception* Includes a range of suggestions for teaching and learning about the poem, both in formal seminars and through independent study* Contains a bibliography of further resources, including a list of editions, a list of key critical studies of the poem and a selection of useful websites

Highlights Spenser's use of legal thought and language, resulting in new insights into his work.Both English language and English political life underwent unprecedented change in the sixteenth century, creating acute linguistic and legal crises that, in Elizabeth I's later years, intersected in the pioneering poetry of Edmund Spenser. This volume explores Spenser's linguistic experimentation and his engagement with political, and particularly legal, thought and language in his major works, demonstrating by thorough lexical analysis and illustrative readings how Spenser figured the nation both descriptively and prescriptively. As a study of the language of The Faerie Queene, the book restores Spenser to his rightful place as a bold but scholarly linguistic innovator, the equal of contemporaries such as Skelton, Shakespeare, Nashe, and Donne. As an enquiry into Spenser's interest in contemporary politics and law, it exposes his serial and contentious engagements in contemporary political theory and practice, and indicates his substantial influence on his contemporaries and successors. Spenser emerges in this book as a poet peculiarly preoccupied with fashioning, or `applying', his reader to the lawful use of words and deeds.ANDREW ZURCHER is Tutor and Director of Studies in English at Queens' College Cambridge.