Best-selling author Kate Mosse to visit Nottingham on new book tour

The tour, which is taking place across several cities around the UK, is focused on supporting independent bookshops such as The Bookcase.

Kate said: “I’m really looking forward to being in Lowdham. One thing I really feel as a novelist is that the book is finished by the readers. What I love is that wherever you go in the country the audience is slightly different. They bring their own questions and their own energy to the room. That’s what I enjoy about touring, everywhere has its own character.”

The Ghost Ship is a historical fiction novel which follows a courageous band of mariners committed to rescuing those enslaved by pirates. The book takes place across several countries including France, which is the basis of many of Kate Mosse’s books, Amsterdam and The Canary Islands.

It is the third novel out of four in The Joubert Family Chronicles however can also be read as a stand-alone book. Each book is based on the elements, with The Ghost Ship being representative of air.

Speaking to Kate about her inspiration for the novel, she said: “I’ve always wanted to write a pirate story. At the back of my mind, I was inspired by a book I read when I was a little girl called The Ladybird Book of Pirates.

“In the book, there were two women, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, and I was fascinated by their stories and how they would disguise themselves as men and run away to sea. I did some research and discovered that there were quite a few female pirates.

“At the back of my mind, I had a thought that I wanted to write a story about a woman who decides to live outside of society to not fulfil the role that society wants women to have and takes command of her own ship. Really that’s where the story came from.”

Kate Mosse visited Nottingham earlier this year when performing her one-woman show at the Playhouse Theatre. The show is inspired by her book Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World and was met with a very positive reception as nearly 500 people attended the show.

“It was an amazing audience. Everyone was incredibly enthusiastic, incredibly loud and engaged,” the author said. “I didn’t know Nottingham very well but, of course, I’ve fallen in love with Nottingham because of this. It was one of my best audiences of the whole theatre tour.”

When visiting the city in March, Kate visited the castle and the city’s historic centre.

She said: “There is such an incredible and rich history and it was fantastic. It was really enjoyable going there and looking around. We arrived and the team were getting the theatre set up. I was having a walk about while it was pouring rain and then suddenly in that wonderful way of England, the clouds parted and it was sunny for about two hours.

“I looked at the castle and learnt about some of its history, I looked at those amazing pubs right opposite and it was just fantastic because I didn’t know Nottingham at all. I visited a couple of bookshops and just enjoyed being in a new place.”