Kate Mosse | |
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.jpg) Mosse in 2008 | |
| Born | Katharine Mosse 1961 (age 63–64) Chichester,West Sussex, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford (BA) |
| Genre | Historical fiction,non-fiction,supernatural,gothic |
| Notable works | Labyrinth (2005) |
| Spouse | Greg Mosse |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| katemosse | |
Katherine Louise MosseCBE (born 1961) is a Britishnovelist, non-fiction and short story writer andbroadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novelLabyrinth, which has been translated into more than 37 languages. She co-founded in 1996 the annual award for best UK-published English-language novel by a woman that is now known as theWomen's Prize for Fiction.
Mosse was born inChichester, and raised inFishbourne, West Sussex, the eldest of three sisters born to asolicitor, Richard (1920–2011) and Barbara (1931–2014).[1] Mosse's aunt was involved in the campaign for the ordination of women and her grandfather was a vicar.[2] She was educated atChichester High School For Girls[citation needed] andNew College, Oxford,[3] from where she graduated in 1984 with a BA (Hons) in English. After leaving university, she spent seven years working in publishing in London forHodder & Stoughton, thenCentury, and finally as an editorial director atHutchinson, part ofthe Random House Group. She was a member of theNational Union of Journalists (NUJ) andWomen in Publishing.
She left publishing in 1992, for a writing career beginning with the non-fiction,Becoming a Mother.[2]
Although best known for her adventure and ghost fiction, inspired by real history, Mosse's first two works were non-fiction.Becoming A Mother (in its seventh edition) was published byVirago in 1993, followed in 1995 byThe House: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, published byBBC Books to accompany theBBC 2The House. She then wrote two contemporary novels.Eskimo Kissing, about a young, adopted woman searching for her background, was well received when it was published in 1996. This was followed in 1998 by the biotech thriller,Crucifix Lane.
The first of the Languedoc Trilogy,Labyrinth, appeared in 2005. A number one bestseller internationally, it has sold millions of copies and was the bestselling title in the UK for 2006. It also won theRichard & Judy Best Book at theBritish Book Awards 2006 and was named as one ofWaterstones Top 25 books of the past 25 years. ALabyrinth miniseries was broadcast in 2013.[4]
In October 2007, the second novel in the trilogy,Sepulchre, was published. A tale of haunting and Tarot set infin-de-siècle and 20th-century France, it was also a number one bestseller in the UK and an international bestseller. While Mosse was researching the third and final novel in the trilogy, she released her novelThe Winter Ghosts in 2009, based on a novella she previously contributed to theQuick Reads Initiative. Film rights have been sold to Ruby Films.Citadel, the third novel in the trilogy, came out in 2012 and was also an international bestseller. Inspired by the real history of the resistance inCarcassonne duringWorld War II, it tells the story of an imagined all-female resistance unit.
In October 2013, Mosse's collection of short stories,The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales, was published – a collection of ghost stories inspired by traditional folk tales and country legends from England and France, throughoutSussex,Brittany and the Languedoc.
In September 2014, Mosse published her gothic thrillerThe Taxidermist's Daughter, set in 1912 inFishbourne andChichester.[5]
In June 2019, Mosse releasedThe Burning Chambers,[6] the first of a series of novels, beginning in the French Wars of Religion, spanning 300 years from 1562 in Carcassonne, viaAmsterdam to 1862 inFranschhoek, Western Cape, South Africa. The second in the series,The City of Tears,[7] was published in 2020.
Mosse has also contributed a number of essays and stories to anthologies and collections, includingModern Delight (a book inspired byJ. B. Priestley's 1949 bookDelight) published byWaterstone's to raise money forDyslexia Action and theLondon Library;Little Black Dress (edited by Susie Maguire);Midsummer Nights (edited byJeanette Winterson), a collection to celebrate the 75th anniversary ofGlyndebourne Opera House inEast Sussex;The Best Little Book Club in Town andThe Coffee Shop Book Club in aid ofBreast Cancer Care andWhy Willows Weep (edited byTracy Chevalier) in aid of theWoodland Trust (2011),Write (Guardian Books),Virago at 40 (edited by Lennie Goodings),Fifty Shades of Feminism (edited byLisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes andSusie Orbach),Writing Historical Fiction (edited byCelia Brayfield andDuncan Sprott) andAnthology of World War I Literature for Children (edited byMichael Morpurgo) in 2014, in aid of theRoyal British Legion andSSAFA.
Mosse has also written introductions to reissues of a number of works of fiction and non-fiction includingWriters' & Artists Yearbook 2009,Captain Blood byRafael Sabatini,We Need to Talk About Kevin byLionel Shriver,Treasure Island byRobert Louis Stevenson,Goldfinger byIan Fleming,Night Falls on the City bySarah Gainham,A Chichester Miscellany by Phil Hewitt,Chichester Harbour: England's Coastal Gem by Liz Sagues,One Hundred Great Plays by Women by Lucy Kerbel.
In 2012, she published an anniversary book to celebrate 50 years of the Chichester Festival Theatre.Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty is published by the crowd-funding publishing company Unbound.[8]
Her first play,Syrinx, was part of the SkyArts Theatre Live project, devised bySandi Toksvig. First performed in July 2009, it won a broadcasting press publicity award that same year. Mosse's second playEndpapers was part of theBush Theatre's 2011 projectSixty-Six Books.[9] Her monologue was inspired by theBook of Revelation, the final book in the Bible.
In September 2020, Mosse's own adaptation of her 2014 gothic thriller The Taxidermist's Daughter, set in 1912 in Fishbourne and Chichester, will première atChichester Festival Theatre.[10]
Mosse writes for various newspapers and magazines, includingThe Times,Telegraph,Guardian andThe Sunday Times and from 2008 to 2011 she wrote a regular column for the book trade magazine,The Bookseller. A regular guest on UK radio and television, she presented theBBC Four literary chat showReaders' and Writers' Roadshow and appears on theBBC Breakfast News andBBC2'sThe Review Show. She is a guest presenter forA Good Read onBBC Radio 4.
Mosse was the captain of the winning team of alumni from New College, Oxford, onChristmas Celebrity University Challenge in 2012. The team included the novelistsRachel Johnson andPatrick Gale.In January 2021, Kate Mosse launched #WomanInHistory, a global campaign of celebration inviting people to nominate a woman from history they thought should be better known.[11][12]
Mosse was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2013 Birthday Honours for services to literature[13] andCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2024 New Year Honours for services to literature, women and charity.[14]
In 2000, she was named European Woman of Achievement for her contribution to the arts.[15] In 2006, she was nominated for aQuill Award and won theBritish Book AwardsBest Read of the Year forLabyrinth. She holds an Honorary MA from theUniversity of Chichester. She was also the 2012 winner of "The Spirit of Everywoman Award",awarded by NatWest. In 2013, she was named as one of publishing Top 100 most influential people by theBookseller and has appeared in every list since. She was named one of London's 1000 most influential people in the arts in 2013 by theEvening Standard.[16]
In 2019, she was appointed visiting professor of Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing at theUniversity of Chichester.[17][18]
She is married to playwright Greg Mosse and has two adult children.[19]
In 1989, she and her husband bought a small house inCarcassonne in theLanguedoc region of southwest France,[2] the inspiration for her bestselling trilogy of historicaltimeslip novels. She moved back to her home town of Chichester in 1998 when she became the first female executive director ofChichester Festival Theatre.[2]
In June 2023 Mosse was the invited guest onBBCRadio 4's long running radio seriesDesert Island Discs hosted byLauren Laverne.
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