I folded that bit of paper and put it in a long since lost box, and made a vow to myself that I would do my utmost to follow in her literary footsteps.

Although The Burning Chambers is 586 pages long, a lengthy novel, I read it in two days because I felt like I was part of a grand adventure thanks to her captivating, rip-roaring plot and the novel's gripping history. A breathtaking historical novel of revenge, persecution and loss, The City of Tears by Kate Mosse follows on from her Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers. The first book in a new series of novels by Kate Mosse, The Burning Chambers is sublime historical fiction. In 2013, she was named as one of publishing Top 100 most influential people by the Bookseller and has appeared in every list since.First-rate cloak and dagger excitement―who knew the religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots in sixteenth century France could be so riveting to modern audiences?

He is mistaken, for in Toulouse, the fires of religious conflict are blazing out of control, with neighbour turning on neighbour, and where old friendships are destined to turn into fatal enmities. The plot and level of suspense was excellent and as gripping as any crime/thriller but for me the historical context made the book. Her books include the multimillion-selling Languedoc trilogy which begins with the unmissable Labyrinth, and the bestselling more recent series, The Joubert Family Chronicles. A lot of people don't want to read a history book about the Wars of Religion in France, for a whole lot of reasons.

The religious divide between Catholicism and Protestantism is growing deeper and deeper, and this sets the dangerous and foreboding backdrop for Minou and Piet. The secondary characters are deftly sketched in, like Minou’s siblings: resourceful seven-year-old Alis and mischievous, restless teenager Aimeric.

A champion of women's creativity, Kate is the Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction - the largest annual celebration of women's writing in the world - and sits on the Executive Committee of Women of the World.Alas my dreams of being an author have not yet come to fruition, but I did spend just shy of two years working with Kate Mosse as social media editor for the newly named Baileys Prize for Fiction.

It helps us to deal with really strong emotions that maybe, when we're reading about them in the contemporary world, are just too hard to face. From the multi-million, number one bestselling author of Labyrinth and The Taxidermist's Daughter, comes The Burning Chambers: a gripping story of love and betrayal, mysteries and secrets, conspiracies and divided loyalties, for fans of Ken Follett and Dan Brown. I think it's also part of people seeing how, in many countries now, we have enormous advantages compared to the people of the past, particularly in terms of health and vaccines and opportunity.Mosse was born in Chichester, and raised in Fishbourne, West Sussex, the eldest of three sisters born to a solicitor, Richard (1920–2011) and Barbara (1931–2014).