FROME author and theatre director, Brian Woolland, has released his first historical novel – The Invisible Exchange.
Published at the end of July, it gives a dangerous and darkly humorous view from the underworld of one of the great scandals of the Jacobean age: Frances Howard’s affair with Viscount Rochester and the strange murder of Sir Thomas Overbury whilst a prisoner in the Tower of London.
Brian was lecturing at Reading University, specialising in 17th century theatre, when he came across an extraordinary story that inspired several plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and became the greatest scandal of the Jacobean age. A passionate love affair, courtly intrigue, a cast of diverse characters from every walk of life, a very public murder trial. But this story had more. And the mystery at the heart of it is still unsolved.
The Invisible Exchange is set in 1611. Matthew Edgworth is employed by Viscount Rochester as a spy and a fixer, and to enable his master’s affair with Frances Howard. When Frances seems impressed by Matthew’s unusual skills, he imagines that he can work for them both – until he realises that Frances is as cunning and ruthless as he is. But a servant with a store of secrets is a dangerous threat. He’s trapped in a scandalous intrigue that goes to the heart of the Jacobean court, and he’ll be hanged for murder, unless he can succeed in one final deadly deception.
Matthew is a man on the margins, a trickster on the inside and the outside of society, who is shaken by his encounters with the occult and challenged by his dealings with four powerful women, each of whom in very different ways forces him into a journey of radical self-discovery.
Lesley McDowell, author of Unfashioned Creatures said, “Matthew is such a great character. He has a distinctive voice; he’s engaging and fascinating. His point of view is intriguing. The Invisible Exchange is a real page-turner.”
After several of Brian’s plays were professionally produced, he decided to leave his university post and develop a second career as a writer and theatre director. He has now had ten plays produced professionally. The Invisible Exchange is his first historical novel. It is available from Hunting Raven bookshop, Cheap Street, Frome.
