The Writers of Wales Database

STANFORD-SMITH, MYRRHA

Please contact via her publisher Honno on 01970 623150 / press@honno.co.uk

Myrrha was born and brought up in Brighton. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and worked in professional theatre and as a teacher. Myrrha directed and taught at The Florence Moor Theatre Studio and toured Shakespeare productions in Sussex before opening her own drama school in Worthing. She retired to Anglesey, where she founded Ucheldre Repertory Company. The Great Lie: A Nick Talbot Adventure (Honno, 2010) is her first novel in a historical fiction trilogy. Myrrha is a Member of The Welsh Academy.

The image of Myrrha above is copyright to Lesley Rice.

Selected Publications:
The Great Lie: A Nick Talbot Adventure (Honno, 2010)
Sea of Troubles (Honno, 2011)
Flight of Angels (Honno, 2012)





The Great Lie: A Nick Talbot Adventure (Honno, 2010)

Nick Talbot, 16 year old son of the late first Earl of Rokesby, escapes the clutches of his tyrannical guardian by running away with Will Kempe's troupe of travelling players. They bring him to London – a hotbed of political and sexual intrigue, in which a number of competing theatres vie for the attention of groundlings and aristocratic patrons alike.

Nick is a talented lad and soon comes to the attention of one Christopher Marlowe, playwright, who is in need of both inspiration and discretion. So begins a partnership that leads to one of the most audacious plots the theatre has ever known – and puts Nick at the centre of a ring of actors, writers, spies and power-mongers, in the midst of which he must find a way to survive and prosper…

It isn't long before young Nick Talbot finds himself torn between a career treading the boards of the Rose and the Globe and life as an undercover agent for Good Queen Bess, with Robert Cecil his spymaster. His adventures take him from London to Edinburgh, Antwerp, Venice and Verona, risking life and limb as he couriers vital documents across a continent in political, theatrical and romantic ferment…

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Flight of Angels (Honno,2012)

Nicholas Talbot is in flight. The Elizabethan gentleman-spy and entrepreneur must outwit his enemy Mowbray, recently escaped from the Tower, and ensure that playwright Christopher Marlowe, secretly returned from Europe, isn't recognised by those who've long thought him dead.

As Marlowe's Hamlet debuts to rapturous applause, Nicholas' world is in danger of collapse. Intrigue at the Scottish and Elizabethan courts makes his life ever-more perilous as he yearns to return to his wife Rosalyne, and his other love – the theatre.

To purchase this title from Honno, please click on its front cover

Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered

1. Historical fiction and general fiction workshops and discussion
2. Playwriting workshops and discussion
3. Creative writing workshops and discussion
4. Talk on presentation of work

AGE RANGE: Age 17+
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Non-car driver but train or bus distance no object