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Blood Red Snow White
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: October 25th 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Russia, Fairy Tales
Synopsis:
It is 1917, and the world is tearing itself to pieces in a dreadful war, but far to the east of the trenches, another battle is breaking out - the Russian Revolution has just begun...
Blood Red, Snow White captures the mood of this huge moment in history through the adventure of one man who was in the middle of it all; Arthur Ransome, a young British journalist who had first run away to Russia to collect fairy tales.
Told as three linked novellas, part one captures the days of revolution but retells the story as Russian Fairy Tale, with typical humour and unashamed brutality. Part two is a spy story, set over the course of one evening, as Ransome faces up to his biggest challenge, and part three is a love story, full of tragedy and hope, as every good Russian love story should be.
When did you start writing?
In a serious way, around the mid-nineties. In 1997, I got an agent, and my first book (Floodland) was published in 2000.
How did you get the idea for Blood Red Snow White?
It's a true story. So getting it was just a matter of luck - I happened to see a small piece in a newspaper proving that an English writer who I'd loved as a child had just been proved to have been a spy in Russia during the revolution. His secret service files had been made public - it all started from there.
Who is your favourite character in Blood Red Snow White?
Obviously it has to be Arthur Ransome, the man who the book is about, but I like lots of the very colorful other characters, real people that he came to meet. There's also three fictional characters in the book - a grandfather and his grandchildren, who I lifted from Ransome's own book of Russian fairy tales and put into this novel.
Do you have any works in progress?
Yes, I'm just putting the very final touches to my next book, Saint Death, which appears in April in the US.
What are your hobbies?
I don't do much other than sleep, eat and write. I love music and film, so I spend much time with those things, and otherwise I like staring into space and calling it research.
I don't do much other than sleep, eat and write. I love music and film, so I spend much time with those things, and otherwise I like staring into space and calling it research.
VIDEO INTERVIEW (EXTRACT FROM MARCUS’ WEBSITE):
This
book picked up a lovely blog review when it first came out in the UK.
If you recognise the vlogger, this is Rosianna Halse Rojas, these days
better known as @papertimelady.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcus Sedgwick was born in Kent, England. Marcus is a British author and illustrator as well as a musician. He is the author of several books, including Witch Hill and The Book of Dead Days, both of which were nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. The most recent of these nominations rekindled a fascination with Poe that has borne fruit here in (in The Restless Dead, 2007) the form of "The Heart of Another" - inspired by Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Of his story, Sedgwick says, "This was one of those stories that I thought might be a novel originally but actually was much better suited to the tight form of the short story. I had the initial idea some years ago but was just waiting for the right ingredient to come along. Poe's story, as well as his own fascination with technique, provided that final piece of the puzzle."
He used to play for two bands namely playing the drums for Garrett and as the guitarist in an ABBA tribute group. He has published novels such as Floodland (winner of the Branford Boase Award in 2001) and The Dark Horse (shortlisted for The Guardian Children's Book Award 2002).
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