The Burning Chambers (The Joubert Family Chronicles)

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The Ghost Ship—which follows The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears—is described by the publisher as “an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a man’s world, of vengeance and breathtaking peril on the high seas, of long-buried family secrets and a love story spanning three generations”.

Mosse said: “I’m delighted that Mantle will be publishing my gender-swapping story of love and adventure at sea. The Ghost Ship has been a delight to work on from start to finish.” Another meticulously researched and stunningly written novel by a much-loved and highly accomplished author. I adored it!' - Santa MontefioreTransporting, intelligent, heartwarming and intriguing, this is historical fiction at its finest - Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane May 1572: for ten violent years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty. But now a precarious peace is in the balance and a royal wedding has been negotiated. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last.

Another meticulously researched and stunningly written novel by a much-loved and highly accomplished author. I adored it! - Santa Montefiore, bestselling author of An Italian Girl in Brooklyn The Ghost Ship is utterly absorbing. I couldn’t put it down and fell in love with her two main characters, and felt bereft when it ended - Louise Minchin, BBC journalist, host of the Her Spirit podcast and author of Fearless She is at pains, as we talk over Zoom, not to romanticise piracy, particularly in its “awful and violent and dangerous” modern-day manifestation, in which, as she notes, “the people who least can afford to suffer are suffering the most from it”. But it is undeniable that the past exercises a fascination, not least because “there is a justice within pirate society. It is very codified, but it’s also democratic. And it’s not what is going on on land, where people know their place, and you can’t rise out of your station; it’s incredibly unfair, and there’s a great deal of poverty. There, on the pirate ship, you follow the rules, you get the treasure, and everybody gets a share of the treasure.” Mosse does what good popular historical novelists do best – make the past enticingly otherworldly, while also claiming it as our own - Independent She is particularly interested in those moments when societies and countries have stood at crossroads. “All of my books are set at a turning point in history,” she explains, on cusps at which “if things had gone the other way, the whole of what happened would have been different. So in City of Tears, obviously, it’s the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. It looked like there would be peace. And because of that, there wasn’t, and it went on for another generation. In The Burning Chambers, the first one, it’s if the Duke of Guise had not opened fire on people praying in Vassy on the first of March 1562, the wars of religion would not have happened like that.” Mosse includes all the ingredients you would expect from a historical epic – murder, treachery, lost children, stolen relics, buried secrets. - Stephanie Merritt, Observer

I’ve just got better as I’ve got older,” she tells me, “at leaning in to the disappointments or the failures, and letting myself feel sad about them, or a bit demoralised about them, and then drawing a line rather than trying to pretend that I don’t mind.” Piracy. Romance. Revenge. Across the seas of the seventeenth century, two seafarers are forced to fight for their lives. The sequel to The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship is the third novel in The Joubert Family Chronicles from bestselling author Kate Mosse. Fifty Shades of Feminism (essay – edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes & Susie Orbach, Virago, 2013)

A champion of women's creativity, Kate is the Founder Director of the Women's Prizes - the largest annual celebration of women's writing in the world - and is the Founder of the global campaign #WomanInHistory launched in January 2021 to honour, celebrate and promote women’s achievements throughout history. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to literature and women, was named Woman of the Year for her service to the arts in the Everywoman Awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A regular guest on book & arts shows on radio and television, shealso writes and presents documentaries. To celebrate her 60th birthday, she launched her own YouTube book channel – Kate-Mosse-on-Books – with a monthly show ‘Mosse on a Monday’. Another of Mosse’s immersive dramas, which takes you to the heart of the past - Grazia Book of the Week

Meet Kate Mosse

Mosse is a master storyteller, balancing thrilling suspense with complex characters and a thoughtful exploration of a fascinating time in history. Her heroine Minou is a pleasure to root for: clever, loving, down-to-earth and courageous! - Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe

Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further. Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power.... Mosse’s fans will relish this tale of secrets, love and treachery - The Times on The Burning Chambers But her years of caring for family members have also paid another, perhaps unexpected, dividend. “I’m aware that some of the scenes I write in my fiction have been absolutely given more depth because of the emotions that I have experienced in real life. None of my characters are me, none of the characters are doing things that I want to do or wish to do. But the emotions that go into a novel, they come from somewhere, don’t they?”

Kate Mosse's Languedoc trilogy books in order

The Founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and recently launched Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. Her most recent feminist non-fiction book, Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World (Mantle, October 2022), is now the basis for a one-woman theatre show. Deft touches show a mastery of preparation, suspension and resolution within the historical thriller form - Financial Times Piracy. Romance. Revenge. Across the seas of the seventeenth century, two seafarers are forced to fight for their lives. The sequel to The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship is the third novel in the Joubert Family Chronicles from bestselling author Kate Mosse.