A Stain in the Blood

Joe Moshenska’s wonderful book is an act of restoration. He mixes impressive scholarship with narrative flair to bring the young Digby back to vivid life. A thrilling account… sparkling… fascinating. – Michael Prodger * The Times *Combining the rigour and precision of the academic with the skills of a master storyteller, in this remarkable tale of one man, the author brings to life an important period of British and Mediterranean history. Full of exquisite details, but with the grandest themes – it has heroic love, it has religion and science, art and literature, power and politics – this is a gripping adventure story. – Zia Haider Rahman, author of In The Light of What We KnowRomance and adventure, piracy and alchemy – Kenelm Digby blazed through one of the most remarkable lives of the seventeenth century. With his engaging blend of scholarship and storytelling, Joe Moshenska takes us on the eye-opening tale of an extraordinary man’s daring quest for fame, fortune, and knowledge on the treacherous seas of the Mediterranean. – Faramerz Dabhoiwala, author of The Origins of SexGripping and extraordinary. – Ann WroeA brilliant account of one of the seventeenth century’s most dashing lives. – Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: My Own LifeA rich sense of the way Digby thought of himself … the historical facts are extraordinary enough to make the whole story well worth telling. – Noel Malcolm * Daily Telegraph *With its deep historical knowledge and eye for glittering detail, A Stain in the Blood resurrects an extraordinary adventure from the archive. In this gripping, artful take on the genre, Joe Moshenska’s biography draws a vivid portrait of this successor to Raleigh or Drake and his fascinating travels. Freighted with riches on every page, it will compel experts and general readers alike. – Sarah Howe, author of Loop of JadeJoe Moshenska’s superb new book gives a captivating account of how one of the most enigmatic figures of the English Renaissance cooked up his own life story. Kenelm Digby – the restless cosmopolitan polymath – knew that to wipe away the sin of his treacherous father he would have to fashion his life as a hero of romance, and A Stain in the Blood gives us the fascinating tale of how he made that new life out of a wild array of books and places. The author and subject are perfectly paired, making the reader witness to one playful and erudite mind looking into another. – Edward Wilson-Lee, author of Shakespeare in SwahililandSir Kenhelm Digby’s ridiculously eventful life, most of it spent negotiating a world of dangerous political and religious differences, is a distant mirror for our age, as compellingly rendered in Joe Moshenska’s new book. – Joyce E. Chaplin, author of Round About the EarthSir Kenhelm Digby’s ridiculously eventful life, most of it spent negotiating a world of dangerous political and religious differences, is a distant mirror for our age, as compellingly rendered in Joe Moshenska’s new book. – Joyce E. Chaplin, author of Round About the Earth

Joe Moshenska spent parts of his childhood in France and Zimbabwe, and was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and at Princeton University, where he received his PhD. He is now a Fellow and Lecturer in English at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 2015 he was chosen as a BBC ‘New Generation Thinker’.

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