Music & silence

Winner of the Whitbread Novel Award

In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death.

Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realise his hopes and save his soul?

Rose Tremainlives in North London and Norwich, with the biographer Richard Holmes.

Her books have won many prizes including the Whitbread Novel of the Year, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Award and theSunday ExpressBook of the Year.Restorationwas shortlisted for the Booker and made into a film;The Colourwas shortlisted for the Orange and selected by theDaily MailReading Club. Her most recent collection,The Darkness of Wallis Simpson,was shortlisted for both the First National Short story Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Two of her books (The ColourandThe Way I Found Her)are in development as films, and she is currently working on a TV screenplay to star Sir Ian McKellen.