Taken at ‘Citadel’ publication launch October 2012
Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth was a worldwide bestselling novel and critical success on an international scale. It won the Best Read category at the British Book Awards 2006, was #1 in UK paperback for six months — selling nearly two million copies — and was the biggest selling title of 2006. In 2007, it was named as one of the Top 25 books of the past 25 years by the bookselling chain Waterstone’s. It also hit the bestseller charts in various countries throughout the world, including the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Norway, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Translation rights to Labyrinth have been sold in thirty-eight languages, including Japanese, Chinese, and Hebrew. Television rights have been sold to Ridley Scott of Scott Free.
Sepulchre, the second in Kate’s Languedoc Trilogy, followed in Labyrinth’s footsteps. It too was an international bestseller, hitting the #1 spot in the UK and bestseller charts in several countries including Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Holland, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. Translation rights have also been sold in all the same territories. Film rights are under negotiation.
Kate’s third and final novel in the Languedoc Trilogy, Citadel, will be published in October 2012. Set during the Second World War in the South of France, it is the story of courage and bravery under Occupation, centred on an all female group of Resistance fighters, codename ‘Citadel’. The novel ties together the themes of the previous two novels and reintroduces characters from both Labyrinth and Sepulchre.
Kate’s stand-alone novella – The Winter Ghosts – was published in Autumn 2009. Also a No 1 bestseller, it is the haunting story set after the tragedy of the Great War of two lives separated by centuries but both touched by war and transformed by courage. Film rights have been sold to Ruby Films.
Kate’s writing career started in 1996. Her debut novel, Eskimo Kissing, was published to critical acclaim, followed in 1998 by the bio-tech time-travel thriller, Crucifix Lane. Her short stories and articles have appeared in a wide range of collections – most recently, a story in Fabulous Trees in support of the Woodland Trust. As well as writing for newspapers and magazine, Kate also writes a regular column in the book trade magazine, The Bookseller.
Her two non-fiction books are: Becoming a Mother, a companion to pregnancy and childbirth (now in its seventh edition), and The House: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She is working on a major illustrated book to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Chichester Festival Theatre, in West Sussex, to be published in April 2012.
Kate’s first play, Syrinx, was commissioned for Sky Theatre Arts Live, which won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award in 2009. She is one of the authors commissioned for the theatre project Sixty-Six, a commission to reinterpret the books of the Bible (Kate is working on Revelation), to be performed for the reopening of the Bush Theatre in London in October 2011 and select other venues. She is also working on another play commission for Chichester Theatre.
Kate is the Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, set up in 1996 to celebrate outstanding fiction by women from throughout the world. A regular judge of writing, literary and art awards, including Orange Futures, Harper’s Bazaar/Orange Short Story Competition and Grazia/Orange First Chapter competition. A leading campaigner for literacy and reading in the UK, and one of the authors leading the campaign against library closures.
A member of the Board of the National Theatre, Kate is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Named European Woman of Achievement for Contribution to the Arts in 2000, in 2006, she was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree by the University of Chichester, her hometown, for her contribution to the arts. She is a Trustee of the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex.
Kate and her husband, Greg Mosse — fellow writer, poet and teacher — are the founders of the Chichester Writing Festival and teach creative writing at West Dean College, where Greg set up the MA in Creative Writing for the University of Sussex.