Amazon.com: Francis Booth: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

A Girl Named Vera Can Never Tell a Lie: The Fiction of Vera Caspary Mar 21, 2022

$9.99

Vera Caspary (1899 – 1987) was ahead of her time but is perfectly aligned with ours. Caspary put strong, independent women at the center of over twenty novels, while tackling sexism, racism, fascism and antisemitism head on in both her life and her work; in the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover personally initiated an FBI investigation of her.
In the 21st century Caspary’s novels have been republished by The Murder Room and The Feminist Press, showing the range of her writing and the breadth of her appeal.
Caspary’s first published novel, The White Girl, 1929, concerns a young Black woman passes as white, very much akin to Nella Larsen’s Passing, which came out later the same year. A 1930s family saga explored the Jewish experience in America. Then in 1942 Caspary turned the hard-boiled murder mystery inside out with Laura, putting a woman at its heart rather than the usual male detective and inventing the genre of the psycho-thriller. Laura was made into a highly successful film, as was its successor Bedelia, 1945, about “the wickedest woman who ever loved.” Fritz Lang’s great film noir The Blue Gardenia, 1953, was adapted from a Caspary novella. In the 1960s Caspary followed a gentle satire on sex in the suburbs with a searing Holocaust novel and then a “confession disguised as a novel” about communism in Connecticut; the final novels of the 1970s all explore the mystery of individual identity.
She made her living writing frothy, romantic stories and scripts for Hollywood movies and several of her novels were republished as lurid pulp paperbacks but at heart Vera Caspary was a connoisseur of classic British literature. One Caspary woman calls herself Haworth after the Brontë Parsonage and another is named Elaine after Tennyson’s Idylls, while Stranger Than Truth pays homage to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White and Bedelia echoes Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. In False Face, Nina was “weaned on Browning and Keats, taught to use my eyes in Florence,” and in The Dreamers Ernestine plans a Ph.D. on George Eliot.
A Girl Named Vera Can Never Tell a Lie is a monumental and ground-breaking study, examining all of Caspary’s published fiction, setting her in the context of her contemporaries and celebrating the Caspary woman, a heroine for our
time.
Francis Booth is also the author of:

Amongst Those Left: The British Experimental Novel 1940 – 1980

Comrades in Art: Revolutionary Art in America 1926 – 1938

Maurice Maeterlinck: The Marionette Plays

Everybody I Can Think Of Ever: Meetings that Made the Avant Garde

Girls in Bloom: Coming of Age in the Mid-20th Century Woman’s Novel

Text Acts: Twentieth Century Literary Eroticism

Killing the Angel: Early British Transgressive Women Writers

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Girls in Bloom: coming of age in the mid 20th century women's novel Nov 10, 2018

by Francis Booth

( 2 )

$8.99

Around 1940, with the rise of the teenager in America, there was a rise in the female coming of age novel, a genre started by Jane Eyre but then largely forgotten. For the next twenty years or so the genre became very popular, including both novels written for teenagers and novels written primarily for adults. Francis Booth’s monumental survey includes extended chapters on Shirley Jackson, Carson McCullers, Maud Hutchins, Rosamond Lehmann, and Rosamond du Jardin, plus chapters on the teen novel, the lesbian coming-of-age novel and the tomboy in women’s fiction.

Other Formats: Paperback

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The Marionette Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck Aug 17, 2017

by Francis Booth

( 2 )

$1.99

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949) changed the course of European theatre by introducing Symbolism and won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but none of his works has been in print in English for many years; the last English translations were done in the 1890s. At the premiere of his first play, La Princess Maleine (1889), Verlaine, Gauguin and Octave Mirbeau were among the audience; Mirbeau's championing of the ''Belgian Shakespeare' brought him worldwide fame and the early plays were performed in England and the United States at the time but he is best remembered now for PÈllÈas et MÈlisande (1892), set as an opera by Claude Debussy, and his fairy-play L'Oiseau Bleu (The Blue Bird). Among his early works are a series of short works Maeterlinck called ''Marionette Plays'. They are static tableaux, showing fragile figures at the mercy of fate, but heavily charged with atmosphere. They seem strikingly modern even in the 21st century, and are obvious precursors of Beckett and Pinter.

Other Formats: Paperback

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Killing the Angel: Early British Transgressive Women Writers Feb 6, 2021

by Francis Booth

$7.99

You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her – you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House. I will describe her as shortly as I can. She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draught she sat in it – in short she was so constituted that she never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others. Above all – I need not say it – she was pure. . . And when I came to write I encountered her with the very first words. The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. . . Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women

This book is about British women writers who comprehensively killed the Angel in their own house, who transgressed the expectations placed upon the women of their time by learning to read, learning languages, learning to think for themselves, enjoying the company of other, equally transgressive women, studying and translating contemporary European literature and the male classics of the patriarchive, often for money, transgressing the unspoken prohibition against women being professional writers and, most transgressive of all, daring to publish their own original writings under their own names.
Virginia Woolf said ‘nothing is known about women before the eighteenth century,’ and in her time nothing much was. But we know a lot more these days about those early transgressive women, the foremothers of contemporary women writers, the creators of the still-emerging matriarchive. As Woolf said, ‘Without those forerunners, Jane Austen and the Brontës and George Eliot could no more have written than Shakespeare could have written without Marlowe, or Marlowe without Chaucer, or Chaucer without those forgotten poets who paved the ways and tamed the natural savagery of the tongue.’
Killing the Angel weaves an Ariadne’s thread, connecting together some of these British women writers, from the earliest days of the English language to the end of the eighteenth century. Writers included are: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Christine of Pizan, Gwerful Mechain, Anne Askew, Isabella Whitney, Jane Anger, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, Emilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Mary Wroth, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, Delarivier Manley, Mary Astell, Susanna Centlivre, Sarah Fyge Egerton, Judith Drake, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Elizabeth Montagu, Sarah Scott, Hester Chapone, Charlotte Lennox, Fanny Burney, Elizabeth Inchbald, Phillis Wheatley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Lister, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Other Formats: Paperback

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Code 17.2: Code 17 series book 2 Jul 21, 2019

by Francis Booth

( 2 )

$3.99

PRAISE FOR CODE 17 BOOK ONE

‘A wild and witty thriller’
Set in London in the swinging sixties with a brief whizz over to New York and back, this is a thrilling, action-packed page-turner. Lady Laura (not her long name) is a glamorous international art dealer who can handle a gun, a sword and, in fact, any kind of weapon. She cons and is conned, shoots and is shot at as she fearlessly seeks the one who is targeting her. Ruthlessly, she pursues her enemy, wiping out anyone who gets in her way with a nod to Twiggy, Warhol and all the other icons of the time who hover in the background of her life among the rich and famous. There are many twists and turns as the reader gasps breathless unable to put the book down. At times you laugh out loud shouting yes, yes, yes as, once more Lady Laura extricates herself from a seemingly impossible situation. She's unputdownable - like the book.

‘Smashing!!!’
I’m a child of the 60s and fondly remember all the great TV series of the time: The Man from Uncle, The Girl from Uncle (perhaps a little more fondly. . . swoon), Department S, The Persuaders and of course The Avengers. Beautiful girls running around in catsuits shooting people and karate chopping people is all okay by me. This book has it all . . . Go-Go boots, Twiggy, Venus in Furs, Jensen FFs . . . smashing!!!

‘Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying’
Now here’s a novel that churns with contradictions. Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying, ‘Code 17’ thrills and chills. Its deeply dislikeable characters have exquisitely addictive redeeming factors that keep us coming back for more. The plot shocks and amazes on every page. Its unexpected format and terrifying subject matter force the reader to ask questions of himself: wouldn’t we behave similarly, in such situations, if only we could get away with it? ‘Code 17’ is set primarily in Swinging-Sixties London, plunders the intriguing worlds of fine art and forgery, aristocracy and auction houses, and drops names. Twiggy, John and Yoko, Warhol and the Velvet Underground are all here. The sex is zipless, the crime ruthless, and it’s every man, woman and murderer for himself. Kill or be killed. Read this novel, but notez bien: it will turn your stomach even as it curdles your heart. It’s the size of it.

‘Had me gripped’
This book had me gripped. The characters transported me back to the swinging sixties. It had me reading "just one more chapter" before I could put it down and I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for the sequel.

‘Vitesse .... Inspired choice .... Soundtrack please!’
Fast moving 60s thrill ... our heroine drives a Triumph Vitesse (oh so cool, well-chosen Mr Booth) ... I believe there's a soundtrack that goes with this. Great fun, brilliant touch points throughout, one almost wants to be transported back for a few days.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Code 17.3: Code 17 series book 3 Dec 7, 2019

by Francis Booth

$3.49

PRAISE FOR CODE 17

'Killing Eve meets The Avengers'

‘A wild and witty thriller’

Set in London in the swinging sixties with a brief whizz over to New York and back, this is a thrilling, action-packed page-turner. Lady Laura (not her long name) is a glamorous international art dealer who can handle a gun, a sword and, in fact, any kind of weapon. She cons and is conned, shoots and is shot at as she fearlessly seeks the one who is targeting her. Ruthlessly, she pursues her enemy, wiping out anyone who gets in her way with a nod to Twiggy, Warhol and all the other icons of the time who hover in the background of her life among the rich and famous. There are many twists and turns as the reader gasps breathless unable to put the book down. At times you laugh out loud shouting yes, yes, yes as, once more Lady Laura extricates herself from a seemingly impossible situation. She’s unputdownable - like the book.

‘Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying’

Now here’s a novel that churns with contradictions. Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying, Code 17 thrills and chills. Its deeply dislikeable characters have exquisitely addictive redeeming factors that keep us coming back for more. The plot shocks and amazes on every page. Its unexpected format and terrifying subject matter force the reader to ask questions of himself: wouldn’t we behave similarly, in such situations, if only we could get away with it? Code 17 is set primarily in Swinging-Sixties London, plunders the intriguing worlds of fine art and forgery, aristocracy and auction houses, and drops names. Twiggy, John and Yoko, Warhol and the Velvet Underground are all here. The sex is zipless, the crime ruthless, and it’s every man, woman and murderer for himself. Kill or be killed. Read this novel, but notez bien: it will turn your stomach even as it curdles your heart. It’s the size of it.

‘Smashing!!!’

I’m a child of the 60s and fondly remember all the great TV series of the time: The Man from Uncle, The Girl from Uncle (perhaps a little more fondly. . . swoon), Department S, The Persuaders and of course The Avengers. Beautiful girls running around in catsuits shooting people and karate chopping people is all okay by me. This book has it all . . . Go-Go boots, Twiggy, Venus in Furs, Jensen FFs . . . smashing!!!

‘Had me gripped’

This book had me gripped. The characters transported me back to the swinging sixties. It had me reading ‘just one more chapter’ before I could put it down and I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for the sequel.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Code 17 Feb 25, 2019

by Francis Booth

( 7 )

$3.49

PRAISE FOR CODE 17

‘A wild and witty thriller’
Set in London in the swinging sixties with a brief whizz over to New York and back, this is a thrilling, action-packed page-turner. Lady Laura (not her long name) is a glamorous international art dealer who can handle a gun, a sword and, in fact, any kind of weapon. She cons and is conned, shoots and is shot at as she fearlessly seeks the one who is targeting her. Ruthlessly, she pursues her enemy, wiping out anyone who gets in her way with a nod to Twiggy, Warhol and all the other icons of the time who hover in the background of her life among the rich and famous. There are many twists and turns as the reader gasps breathless unable to put the book down. At times you laugh out loud shouting yes, yes, yes as, once more Lady Laura extricates herself from a seemingly impossible situation. She's unputdownable - like the book.

‘Smashing!!!’
I’m a child of the 60s and fondly remember all the great TV series of the time: The Man from Uncle, The Girl from Uncle (perhaps a little more fondly. . . swoon), Department S, The Persuaders and of course The Avengers. Beautiful girls running around in catsuits shooting people and karate chopping people is all okay by me. This book has it all . . . Go-Go boots, Twiggy, Venus in Furs, Jensen FFs . . . smashing!!!

‘Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying’
Now here’s a novel that churns with contradictions. Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying, ‘Code 17’ thrills and chills. Its deeply dislikeable characters have exquisitely addictive redeeming factors that keep us coming back for more. The plot shocks and amazes on every page. Its unexpected format and terrifying subject matter force the reader to ask questions of himself: wouldn’t we behave similarly, in such situations, if only we could get away with it? ‘Code 17’ is set primarily in Swinging-Sixties London, plunders the intriguing worlds of fine art and forgery, aristocracy and auction houses, and drops names. Twiggy, John and Yoko, Warhol and the Velvet Underground are all here. The sex is zipless, the crime ruthless, and it’s every man, woman and murderer for himself. Kill or be killed. Read this novel, but notez bien: it will turn your stomach even as it curdles your heart. It’s the size of it.

‘Had me gripped’
This book had me gripped. The characters transported me back to the swinging sixties. It had me reading "just one more chapter" before I could put it down and I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for the sequel.

‘Vitesse .... Inspired choice .... Soundtrack please!’
Fast moving 60s thrill ... our heroine drives a Triumph Vitesse (oh so cool, well-chosen Mr Booth) ... I believe there's a soundtrack that goes with this. Great fun, brilliant touch points throughout, one almost wants to be transported back for a few days.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Dhammapada, Songs of the Elder Sisters and Sakuntala: translations from Pali and Sanskrit Nov 11, 2018

by Francis Booth

$1.99

Translations of three key classic Indian works:
Dhammapada, a verse translation of selections from the words of the Buddha,
Songs of the Elder Sisters, verse translations of 2,500 year old poems by nuns who travelled with the Buddha,
Sakuntala, a verse drama based on the much-loved story about the mother of Bharata, the founder of India, adapted from book one of the Mahabharata and the play by the Sanskrit dramatist Kalidasa.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Code 17.6: Code 17 series book 6 Sep 7, 2021

by Francis Booth

( 2 )

$3.49

Praise for Code 17

‘A wild and witty thriller’

Set in London in the swinging sixties with a brief whizz over to New York and back, this is a thrilling, action-packed page-turner. Lady Laura (not her long name) is a glamorous international art dealer who can handle a gun, a sword and, in fact, any kind of weapon. She cons and is conned, shoots and is shot at as she fearlessly seeks the one who is targeting her. Ruthlessly, she pursues her enemy, wiping out anyone who gets in her way with a nod to Twiggy, Warhol and all the other icons of the time who hover in the background of her life among the rich and famous. There are many twists and turns as the reader gasps breathless unable to put the book down. At times you laugh out loud shouting yes, yes, yes as, once more Lady Laura extricates herself from a seemingly impossible situation. She’s unputdownable - like the book.

‘Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying’

Now here’s a novel that churns with contradictions. Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying, Code 17 thrills and chills. Its deeply dislikeable characters have exquisitely addictive redeeming factors that keep us coming back for more. The plot shocks and amazes on every page. Its unexpected format and terrifying subject matter force the reader to ask questions of himself: wouldn’t we behave similarly, in such situations, if only we could get away with it? Code 17 is set primarily in Swinging-Sixties London, plunders the intriguing worlds of fine art and forgery, aristocracy and auction houses, and drops names. Twiggy, John and Yoko, Warhol and the Velvet Underground are all here. The sex is zipless, the crime ruthless, and it’s every man, woman and murderer for himself. Kill or be killed. Read this novel, but notez bien: it will turn your stomach even as it curdles your heart. It’s the size of it.

‘Smashing!!!’

I’m a child of the 60s and fondly remember all the great TV series of the time: The Man from Uncle, The Girl from Uncle (perhaps a little more fondly. . . swoon), Department S, The Persuaders and of course The Avengers. Beautiful girls running around in catsuits shooting people and karate chopping people is all okay by me. This book has it all . . . Go-Go boots, Twiggy, Venus in Furs, Jensen FFs . . . smashing!!!

‘Had me gripped’

This book had me gripped. The characters transported me back to the swinging sixties. It had me reading ‘just one more chapter’ before I could put it down and I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for the sequel.

Other Formats: Paperback

Code 17.5: Code 17 Series Book 5 Nov 27, 2020

by Francis Booth

( 1 )

$3.49

A wild and witty thriller’
Set in London in the swinging sixties with a brief whizz over to New York and back, this is a thrilling, action-packed page-turner. Lady Laura (not her long name) is a glamorous international art dealer who can handle a gun, a sword and, in fact, any kind of weapon. She cons and is conned, shoots and is shot at as she fearlessly seeks the one who is targeting her. Ruthlessly, she pursues her enemy, wiping out anyone who gets in her way with a nod to Twiggy, Warhol and all the other icons of the time who hover in the background of her life among the rich and famous. There are many twists and turns as the reader gasps breathless unable to put the book down. At times you laugh out loud shouting yes, yes, yes as, once more Lady Laura extricates herself from a seemingly impossible situation. She's unputdownable - like the book.

‘Smashing!!!’
I’m a child of the 60s and fondly remember all the great TV series of the time: The Man from Uncle, The Girl from Uncle (perhaps a little more fondly. . . swoon), Department S, The Persuaders and of course The Avengers. Beautiful girls running around in catsuits shooting people and karate chopping people is all okay by me. This book has it all . . . Go-Go boots, Twiggy, Venus in Furs, Jensen FFs . . . smashing!!!

‘Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying’
Now here’s a novel that churns with contradictions. Compelling, assured and darkly satisfying, ‘Code 17’ thrills and chills. Its deeply dislikeable characters have exquisitely addictive redeeming factors that keep us coming back for more. The plot shocks and amazes on every page. Its unexpected format and terrifying subject matter force the reader to ask questions of himself: wouldn’t we behave similarly, in such situations, if only we could get away with it? ‘Code 17’ is set primarily in Swinging-Sixties London, plunders the intriguing worlds of fine art and forgery, aristocracy and auction houses, and drops names. Twiggy, John and Yoko, Warhol and the Velvet Underground are all here. The sex is zipless, the crime ruthless, and it’s every man, woman and murderer for himself. Kill or be killed. Read this novel, but notez bien: it will turn your stomach even as it curdles your heart. It’s the size of it.

‘Had me gripped’
This book had me gripped. The characters transported me back to the swinging sixties. It had me reading "just one more chapter" before I could put it down and I didn't want it to end! Can't wait for the sequel.

‘Vitesse .... Inspired choice .... Soundtrack please!’
Fast moving 60s thrill ... our heroine drives a Triumph Vitesse (oh so cool, well-chosen Mr Booth) ... I believe there's a soundtrack that goes with this. Great fun, brilliant touch points throughout, one almost wants to be transported back for a few days.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Mirror Mirror: a Novel Aug 1, 2020

by Francis Booth

( 1 )

$3.49

We met in the mirror.
It’s a great big mirror, taller than us, with a big, heavy dark wood frame; it’s in our room at the top of the house. When we walked into the room for the first time we saw ourself in the mirror. I mean, that’s what you see in a mirror, isn’t it?
Your self.
We looked identical. Almost identical, anyway. We had the same long lank hair, the same long nose and big green eyes. We both wore a shapeless black dress.
But our dresses weren’t exactly the same. Nearly. But not exactly.
We were both carrying the bags that contained everything we had left of our old lives, the lives we had to leave behind. But our bags weren’t quite the same.
We both dropped the bags at the same time. Though not at precisely the same time.
I looked at my reflection.
It was me.
But it wasn’t exactly me.
I went up close to the mirror. My almost-exact reflection did the same. We leaned in close. Then we walked backwards into the room, almost exactly in step.
Almost.
We said ‘hello’ at the same time but our lips didn’t move quite the same. Very nearly, but not quite.
‘I’m Isabella,’ we said.
‘So am I,’ we replied at almost exactly the same time.
Almost.
But not quite.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

The Charlotte Strain: the watchers series book one Mar 27, 2019

by Francis Booth

$2.99

'My name is Charley and I think I'm a clone. I think I had a mum but no dad.'Fifteen-year-old Charley is just a nerdy schoolgirl, brought up by her larger than life nan, who used to be in a girl punk band. Then her safe, normal life is pulled apart when she discovers a box of old family portraits. But not of normal families. They are of a centuries-old secret sisterhood, Descendants of the mysterious Watchers. No one ever sees the Watchers, but Charley does. Charley discovers that she is one of the Descendants, and a very special one. She was born for a great mission, but that's the last thing she wants. How can she stop it? Who can she trust? Charley will have to risk everything to avoid becoming the mother of a new race of terrifying beings.This richly-illustrated book is perfect for fans of Ransom Riggs and Madeleine Roux.

Other Formats: Paperback

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