A. K. Blakemore

The sixteen days of the Peasant's Revolt, when new versions of England were born under the charismatic leader Wat Tyler, brought to life in a dazzlingly inventive novel by the author of The Manningtree Witches. It is 1381. England, reeling from plague and years of conflict abroad, is a tinderbox waiting to spark. Two childhood friends ride into the town of Brentwood, Essex, where they come upon an altercation with a local Justice bent on squeezing more coin from the masses. Thus begins a rebellion of the common folk - loyal to the king, but not to those wealthy landowners who curtail their freedoms; the multitude finding cause against the powers that threaten their livelihoods. Set over sixteen days, Doom Painting roves across England as the revolt grows and swells and the rebels march to London to take their demands to the child-king Richard II. Out of the rebellion emerges its enigmatic and charismatic leader Wat Tyler, an opportunistic and mercurial rogue whose morality is birthed by the cause, and who shapes an identity for the English which has never been lost. A. K. Blakemore's thrilling retelling of the Peasants' Revolt renders it a definitive moment in British history. In the meeting of peasantry and nobility, new versions of England are born, and - for one bloody summer - the people of England seize control.

"It does not matter what is true, or not true. All that matters is what is written down." Essex, 1643. A country divided. A town on its knees. A teenage girl with a dangerous secret. Adapted by Ava Pickett from the award-winning novel by A. K. Blakemore, The Manningtree Witches is both a gripping historical drama and a fiercely modern exploration of fear, control, and what happens when women's voices are silenced. It is published alongside the premiere production by Mercury Theatre Colchester in 2026.

'Exceptional' Telegraph 'Shocking, sensual and moving... Unfailingly original' The Times The 18th century is drawing to a close, and unrest grips France. Tarare has been born into a life of slender means, but when a sudden act of violence ignites in him a ferocious appetite, his extraordinary abilities to eat make him a marvel throughout the land. Travelling to Paris and beyond, through the heart of the Revolution, he journeys into a world of upheaval and depravity, in which the hunger of one peasant is matched only by the insatiable demands of the people of France. 'A baroque triumph... Unforgettable' Financial Times 'Incredibly impressive... As original as it is refreshing' Irish Times 'A tour de force of sustained, visceral brilliance' Mail on Sunday 'There are few writers who can be truly likened to Hilary Mantel, but Blakemore is one' Observer

A New York Times EDITORS' CHOICE MOST ANTICIPATED by The Guardian - Paste Magazine - LitHub - The Millions - Library Journal From the prizewinning author of The Manningtree Witches, a subversive historical novel set during the French Revolution, inspired by a young peasant boy turned showman, said to have been tormented and driven to murder by an all-consuming appetite. "Obscenely beautiful... Every sentence is gorgeous... Powerful and provocative." --The New York Times Book Review "This year, I found myself seeking one quality above all others from the books I read: escapism. And no book plunged me into another world quite so bracingly as The Glutton." --Vogue 1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetu has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it's killing him from the inside. But that's not all--he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite...an appetite they say tortures him still. Born in an impoverished village to a widowed young mother, Tarare was once overflowing with quiet affection: for the Baby Jesus and the many Saints, for his mother, for the plants and little creatures in the woods and fields around their house. He spends his days alone, observing the delicate charms of the countryside. But his world is not a gentle one--and soon, life as he knew it is violently upended. Tarare is pitched down a chaotic path through revolutionary France, left to the mercy of strangers, and increasingly, bottomlessly, ravenous. This exhilarating, disquieting novel paints a richly imagined life for The Great Tarare, The Glutton of Lyon in 18th-century France: a world of desire, hunger and poverty; hope, chaos and survival. As in her cult hit The Manningtree Witches, Blakemore showcases her stunning lyricism and deep compassion for characters pushed to the edge of society in The Glutton, her most unputdownable work yet.

One man with an insatiable hunger: a novel of desire and destruction in Revolutionary France, based on a true story, from the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning author of The Manningtree Witches.

One man with an insatiable hunger: a novel of desire and destruction in Revolutionary France, based on a true story, from the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning author of The Manningtree Witches.

Fear and suspicion take root among the women of Manningtree, when the Witchfinder General comes to town... WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA PRIZE 'Riveting, appalling, addictive' Megan Nolan England, 1643. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the Civil War began, the women are left to their own devices and Rebecca West chafes against the drudgery of her days. But when Matthew Hopkins arrives, asking bladed questions and casting damning accusations, mistrust and unease seep into the lives of the women. Caught between betrayal and persecution, what must Rebecca do to survive? 'Brilliantly written... fascinating and compelling' Stylist 'Glimmers with darkness and glints with fear... Vivid and original' Daily Mail 'Not just the best debut novel I've read in years, it's the best historical novel I've read since Wolf Hall' Sandra Newman

Wolf Hall meets The Favourite in this beguiling debut novel that brilliantly brings to life the residents of a small English town in the grip of the seventeenth-century witch trials and the young woman tasked with saving them all from themselves. "This is an intimate portrait of a clever if unworldly heroine who slides from amused observation of the 'moribund carnival atmosphere' in the household of a 'possessed' child to nervous uncertainty about the part in the proceedings played by her adored tutor to utter despair as a wagon carts her off to prison." --Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review England, 1643. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices. Rebecca West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only occasionally by her infatuation with the handsome young clerk John Edes. But then a newcomer, who identifies himself as the Witchfinder General, arrives. A mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about what the women on the margins of this diminished community are up to. Dangerous rumors of covens, pacts, and bodily wants have begun to hang over women like Rebecca--and the future is as frightening as it is thrilling. Brimming with contemporary energy and resonance, The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust, and betrayal run amok as a nation's arrogant male institutions start to realize that the very people they've suppressed for so long may be about to rise up and claim their freedom.

Poetry. Young Adult. HUMBERT SUMMER is a book about the febrile matter of fantasy in its rawest form—alternately subversive, awkward, romantic, and unsettling. Written between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, the poems in A. K. Blakemore's debut full-length collection navigate the challenging space between adolescence and adulthood in a culture quick to dismiss, commodify, or fetishise the female body and imagination.