Masque of the Gonzagas - Softcover

Clare Colvin's first novel, A Fatal Season (Duckworth, 1996) received excellent reviews. She is also a well-known journalist and short story writer, whose work has appeared in anthologies including many of Constable's Winter Tales and Serpent's Tail's Cold Comfort, on radio, and has been translated in Europe. She writes regularly for national newspapers and magazines, and is a former literary editor of the Express on Sunday

Colvin's writing sweeps the reader along the streets of Mantua, the valleys of Tuscany and the canals of Venice. It pursues a fable of loss and redemption, a carnival of miniatures and caricatures, and a history of the conceits and deceits of the Gonzagas, as well counterpointed and interwoven as any Monteverdi scene' Independent'A fine novel of suitable baroque intensity. This is historical fiction with imaginative sweep' Daily Telegraph