- Published: 5 May 2016
- ISBN: 9781448185566
- Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 576
A Stain in the Blood
The Remarkable Voyage of Sir Kenelm Digby
- Published: 5 May 2016
- ISBN: 9781448185566
- Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 576
Joe Moshenska's superb new book gives a captivating account of how one of the most enigmatic figures of the English Renaissance cooked up his own life story. Kenelm Digby – the restless cosmopolitan polymath – knew that to wipe away the sin of his treacherous father he would have to fashion his life as a hero of romance, and A Stain in the Blood gives us the fascinating tale of how he made that new life out of a wild array of books and places. The author and subject are perfectly paired, making the reader witness to one playful and erudite mind looking into another.
Edward Wilson-Lee, author of Shakespeare in Swahililand
Romance and adventure, piracy and alchemy – Kenelm Digby blazed through one of the most remarkable lives of the seventeenth century. With his engaging blend of scholarship and storytelling, Joe Moshenska takes us on the eye-opening tale of an extraordinary man's daring quest for fame, fortune, and knowledge on the treacherous seas of the Mediterranean.
Faramerz Dabhoiwala, author of The Origins of Sex
Gripping and extraordinary.
Ann Wroe
A brilliant account of one of the seventeenth century's most dashing lives.
Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: My Own Life
Combining the rigour and precision of the academic with the skills of a master storyteller, in this remarkable tale of one man, the author brings to life an important period of British and Mediterranean history. Full of exquisite details, but with the grandest themes – it has heroic love, it has religion and science, art and literature, power and politics – this is a gripping adventure story.
Zia Haider Rahman, author of In The Light of What We Know
With its deep historical knowledge and eye for glittering detail, A Stain in the Blood resurrects an extraordinary adventure from the archive. In this gripping, artful take on the genre, Joe Moshenska’s biography draws a vivid portrait of this successor to Raleigh or Drake and his fascinating travels. Freighted with riches on every page, it will compel experts and general readers alike.
Sarah Howe, author of Loop of Jade
Sir Kenhelm Digby’s ridiculously eventful life, most of it spent negotiating a world of dangerous political and religious differences, is a distant mirror for our age, as compellingly rendered in Joe Moshenska’s new book.
Joyce E. Chaplin, author of Round About the Earth
A vividly imagined portrait of Digby… A Stain in the Blood is a history full of enticing fictions… as heroic as Digby himself, Moshenska has defied the tyranny of genre, and made his own absorbing narrative.
Robert McCrum, Observer
Joe Moshenska's wonderful book is an act of restoration. He mixes impressive scholarship with narrative flair to bring the young Digby back to vivid life. A thrilling account... sparkling… fascinating.
Michael Prodger, The Times
[A] well researched, novelistic biography.
Sunday Telegraph
A rich sense of the way Digby thought of himself … the historical facts are extraordinary enough to make the whole story well worth telling.
Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph
There can be no doubt that Moshenska is an erudite and engaging biographer of an individual who demonstrated these very qualities in abundance. Digby deserved to be rescued from relative obscurity and Moshenska is to commended for doing so with such verve.
Times Literary Supplement
Hugely enjoyable …[Sir Kenelm Digby was] one of the 17th-century’s most remarkable Englishmen … As he brings to vivid life the young man’s quest for fame, fortune and new experiences, Moshenska combines erudition and deft storytelling to great effect.
The Sunday Times
Joe Moshenska’s splendid book – the first full-length study of Kenelm Digby for sixty years – teems with picaresque stories … Moshenska’s research is transparent and extensive. He has immersed himself in Kenelm’s writings, uncovered new letters and scrutinized the language to produce a fascinating and innovative study of early modern self-fashioning.
Times Literary Supplement
Achieves a stained glass window vividity in its portrayal of Jacobean England and of Digby himself.
Sunday Times, S Magazine
Successfully brings back to life a forgotten self-made man who was at the same time braggadocio and philosopher, and who seemed to live so many lives. Readers curious to learn more can only await the second half of the story.
The Economist
Joe Moshenska’s wonderful and sparkling biography pays [Sir Kenelm Digby] fitting tribute.
The Oldie
[Digby’s] story has been a long time finding a narrator, but this book has been worth waiting for.
Astene: Assoc. for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East
Reads like a thrilling historical novel but amazingly happens to be nonfiction.
Mark Haddon