BOOK OF THE YEAR - EVENING STANDARD, THE OBSERVER and THE TIMES ‘Beautifully written and completely convincing’ The Observer ‘An excellent novel – riotous and abundant, full of vivid, dirty life’ The Guardian TO LOVE IS TO FALL . . . On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city's fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar. Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London's hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city's outcasts, the pair's relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come… Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal. 'Dramatic and gripping... a breathless journey of hope, beauty, wonder, tragedy, and the power of theatre' Isabelle Schuler 'Rich and evocative with shades of Angela Carter' Ever Dundas 'A story of rebellion and magic, of mysticism and broken love in the streets and theatres and rooftops of Elizabethan London. Beautifully written, delicate and sad. I'm still haunted by it' Mariana Enriquez 'Osman brings the underworld of Elizabethan London to life with its child theatres, rioting apprentices and anarchic world, its jumble of squalor and glamour... larger-than-life heroes raise child rebellions; pursue exalted, treacherous love affairs; see the future in a flock of birds. Glorious!' Sandra Newman ‘Hauntingly beautiful … Thrilling and thought-provoking’ The Independent

This is a book about English art like no other. Forget the tired rogues' gallery of lords and ladies, forget the tall ships and haywains. These images cut to the heart of England's psychic landscapes to portray an Albion unhinged, where magic and rebellion and destruction are the horses to which the country is hitched. On these fabled shores we are all castaways, whether our family has lived here for four thousand years or for four. Here you will find depictions of ancient trackways, chalk carvings and standing stones, of animal-masked community rituals, of streets set ablaze in protest, of occult dreams and psychedelic prophecies. There are over 200 images by artists ranging from William Blake, J.M.W. Turner and Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash, Louis Wain, Bill Brandt, Derek Jarman and Ithell Colquhoun to present-day visionaries such as Paula Rego, Cathy de Monchaux, George Shaw, Jamie Reid, Matt Collishaw, Tacita Dean, Lina Iris Viktor, Yinka Shonibare, Nick Waplington, Dan Hillier, Nicola Tyson, Sutapa Biswas and Chila Kumari Burman. The mind-blowing selection of images is accompanied by short texts by Mat Osman, exploring magic and mazes, ghosts and gardens, shipwrecks and cities. These poetic renderings of a spectral isle, together with Stephen Ellcock's hallucinatory visual journey, reclaim Albion as an eternally inspiring and anarchic domain - an England on fire.

BOOK OF THE YEAR - EVENING STANDARD, THE OBSERVER and THE TIMES ‘Beautifully written and completely convincing’ The Observer TO LOVE IS TO FALL . . . On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city's fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar. Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London's hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city's outcasts, the pair's relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come… Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal. 'Dramatic and gripping... a breathless journey of hope, beauty, wonder, tragedy, and the power of theatre' Isabelle Schuler 'Utterly transporting' Catriona Ward 'Vivid, heady and brilliantly staged' Stuart Evers 'Rich and evocative with shades of Angela Carter' Ever Dundas 'A story of rebellion and magic, of mysticism and broken love in the streets and theatres and rooftops of Elizabethan London. Beautifully written, delicate and sad. I'm still haunted by it' Mariana Enriquez 'Osman brings the underworld of Elizabethan London to life with its child theatres, rioting apprentices and anarchic world, its jumble of squalor and glamour... larger-than-life heroes raise child rebellions; pursue exalted, treacherous love affairs; see the future in a flock of birds. Glorious!' Sandra Newman

London, 2010: Icelandic volcanoes have the city in gridlock, banks topple like dominoes and Brandon Kussgarten has been shot dead by gunmen in Donald Duck masks. His death draws his twin brother - shy, bookish Adam - into Brandon's underworld of deceit and desire.A miniature kingdom sprouts in a Notting Hill tower-block, LA mansions burn in week-long parties, and in a Baroque hotel suite a record is being made that could redeem its maker even as it destroys him. As Adam begins to fall for his brother's shattered family he finds that to win them for himself he'll have to lose everything that he holds dear.This intelligent, intriguing and emotionally-searing tale of fractured identities, narcissism and ambition questions how being loved for what others think we are differs from who we are to ourselves.With echoes of Performance, The Talented Mr Ripley and Mulholland Drive, The Ruins delves into the dark heart of fame: magic, music and murder.