Cirrus

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Star Chamber, the High Court of the English realm, forms the literal and thematic backdrop to a novel of intrigue, murder, witchcraft and treason. Beneath the stars' reflected light Sir Francis Bacon considers evidence about the life of Lady Arbella Stuart, her mysterious death in the Tower, her dead child, and her connection to the murder of another woman, where this novel begins in 1623. Narrated by a young Thomas Hobbes, the novel delves into a murky corner of Jacobean court life where a person's closeness to the throne as in Arbella's case is a constant liability. Bacon uses the investigation to kick-start his career and reinstate his favour at court, while Hobbes, doubtful about the stratagems at play, tries to uncover the truth. But Martin's oblique approach, in a narrative full of the atmosphere and detail of England as it approaches civil war, shows how relative is truth.' Debra Adelaide, Sydney Morning Herald, 22.11.2003.

Notes

Dedication: To those in the British Museum Reading Room, that summer.
Epigraph: The Lord Chancellor Bacon loved to converse with Mr Hobbs. His lordship was a very contemplative person, and was wont to contemplate in his delicious walks at Gorhambury, and to dictate to the gentlemen that attended him with ink and paper, ready to set down at once his thoughts. His lordship would often say that he better liked Mr Hobbs taking his thoughts than any of the others, because Mr Hobbs understood what he wrote. John Aubrey: Brief Lives
Epigraph: I returned to my homeland, not quite sure of my safety. But in no other place could I have been safer. It was cold, there was deep snow; I was an old man now and the wind was bitter. My bucking horse and the rough road gave me trouble. Thomas Hobbes: Vita Carmina Expressa.
Epigraph: Though I am past ninety and too old To expect preferment in the court of Cupid, And many winters made me even so cold I am become almost all over stupid. Yet I can love and have a mistress too, As fair as can be and as wise as fair; And yet not proud, nor anything will doTo make me of her favour to despair.To tell you who she is were very bold; But if in the character your self you find Think not the man a fool though he be old Who loves in body fair a fairer mind.Thomas Hobbes.

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In Short : Fiction Debra Adelaide , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 November 2003; (p. 17)
— Review of Transactions Neil Boyack , 2003 selected work short story ; Geckos and Moths Patricia Johnson , 2003 single work novel ; Arbella's Baby : A Jacobean Mystery Margaret Martin , 2003 single work novel

Ingenious Novel Explores Mystery Ralph Elliott , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 October 2003; (p. 4a)
— Review of Arbella's Baby : A Jacobean Mystery Margaret Martin , 2003 single work novel

A Little Too Much History Ken Spillman , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 18 October 2003; (p. 16)
— Review of Arbella's Baby : A Jacobean Mystery Margaret Martin , 2003 single work novel