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The Raven's Heart: A Story of a Quest, a Castle and Mary Queen of Scots Paperback – 11 September 2012
Jesse Blackadder (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Jesse Blackadder has all the hallmarks of a great historical fiction writer, achieving a fine balance of thoroughly researched atmospheric detail and suspenseful story. . . . In The Raven's Heart she doesn't hit one wrong note.--The Sunday Telegraph
Scotland, 1561, and a ship comes across the North Sea carrying home Mary, the young, charismatic Queen of Scots, returning after thirteen years in the French court to wrest back control of her throne.
The Blackadder family has long awaited for the Queen's return to bring them justice. Alison Blackadder, disguised as a boy from childhood to protect her from the murderous clan that stole their lands, must learn to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, building a web of dependence and reward.
Just as the Queen can trust nobody, Alison discovers lies, danger, and treachery at every turn.
This sweeping, imaginative, and original tale of political intrigue, misplaced loyalty, secret passion, and implacable revenge is based on real characters and events from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.
The Raven's Heart is a breathtaking epic from a bold, fresh voice. Winner of the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award, The Raven's Heart was published in Australia in 2011.
Jesse Blackadder finally had enough of people asking if she was related to Rowan Atkinson, star of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. She traveled to Scotland to find the origins of her surname and discovered the ruins of Blackadder House on the banks of the Blackadder River. The Raven's Heart grew from there. Jesse lives in Byron Bay, Australia.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBywater Books
- Publication date11 September 2012
- Dimensions13.97 x 2.54 x 21.34 cm
- ISBN-101612940277
- ISBN-13978-1612940274
Product description
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Bywater Books; Reprint edition (11 September 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1612940277
- ISBN-13 : 978-1612940274
- Dimensions : 13.97 x 2.54 x 21.34 cm
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Yes, Jesse Blackadder really was born with that surname. An award-winning novelist, freelance writer and budding screenwriter, she is fascinated by landscapes, adventurous women and really cold places.
Jesse's forthcoming novel 'In the Blink of an Eye' is being published by St Martins Press in March 2019. (It was published in Australia as 'Sixty Seconds' by HarperCollins in 2017). The novel was inspired by her childhood experience of her sister's death in a swimming pool.
Jesse has recently been jointly awarded the 2018 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship to write a television series and a junior novel series set in Antarctica, in partnership with screenwriter Jane Allen. The pair will live at Mawson Station over the 2018/19 summer.
'Chasing the Light' (2013), is historical fiction based on the true but forgotten story of the first women to reach Antarctica. Jesse won her first Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship in 2011 and travelled to Antarctica to research the novel.
Jesse's novel, The Raven's Heart, came about when she'd finally had enough of people asking if she was related to Rowan Atkinson. She travelled to Scotland to find the origins of the Blackadder surname and discovered the ruins of Blackadder House on the banks of the Blackadder River.
Her first novel, After the Party (Hardie Grant Books 2005), made the Australian Book Review list of all time favourite Australian novels in 2010.
Jesse has been a writer in residence in Sitka Alaska, in the Australian outback and at Byron Bay, and has been a fellow three times at Varuna The Writers' House, Australia's leading residential program for writers. She has a Doctor of Creative Arts from the University of Western Sydney. Born in Sydney, she now lives near Byron Bay on Australia's east coast. For more about Jesse please see her website at www.jesseblackadder.com
Customer reviews
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When the book opens, Mary Queen of Scots is newly returning from France to take over her kingdom, and Alison's father sends her into the new Queen's service. There, the queen's beauty, elegance and sophistication enchant Alison, who falls in love with her. But the Queen, as we all know from school history, was interested in entirely unsuitable men, and instead Alison becomes her confidante and spy.
Right from the start you know that Mary's vision for her future isn't going to happen, and you fear that Alison will also be caught up in the trouble. Of course, she is, and that's the joy of the story.
Jesse Blackadder, an Australian, manages to bring the wet gloom of Scotland and the jewelled brightness of a Tudor-era court to life. The Raven's Heart won mulitple awards (including the Benjamin Franklin Award for Historical Fiction and the Golden Crown Award), and you can see why.



