"An engrossing, enthralling and utterly captivating read, The Young Pretender tells a simply remarkable story with bounce, energy, wit, and lively authenticity . . . Michael Arditti's brilliant imaginative achievement offers high comedy, dark tragedy and everything between" STEPHEN FRY\n"The Young Pretender is an absolute joy - charming and funny, with the lightest hint of melancholy, and a wonderfully imaginative recreation of the Georgian theatre scene" KATE SAUNDERS\n"I loved how Arditti conjures...the smell of the theatre and the ghosts of these bygone players that haunt the stage...and the wonderful period details. Arditti wears his research so lightly" LARUSHKA IVAN-ZADEH, reviewing on Radio 4's FRONT ROW *****\nMobbed by the masses, lionised by the aristocracy, courted by royalty and lusted after by patrons of both sexes, the child actor William Henry West Betty was one of the most famous people in Georgian Britain.\nAt the age of thirteen, he played leading roles, including Romeo, Macbeth and Richard III, in theatres across the country. Prime Minister William Pitt adjourned the House of Commons so that its members could attend his debut as Hamlet at Covent Garden. Then, as rivals turned on him and scandal engulfed him, he suffered a fall as merciless as his rise had been meteoric.\n"Arditti's voice as Betty is impeccable. He is touchy, sometimes myopic, sincere in his ambitions. His attempts to reclaim lost glory are run through with an affecting melancholy" The Times\nThe Young Pretender takes place during Betty's attempted comeback at the age of twenty-one. As he seeks to relaunch his career, he is forced to confront the painful truths behind his boyhood triumphs. Michael Arditti's revelatory new novel puts this long forgotten figure back in the limelight. In addition to its rich and poignant portrait of Betty himself, it offers an engrossing insight into both the theatre and society of the age. The nature of celebrity, the power of publicity and the cult of youth are laid bare in a story that is more pertinent now than ever.\n"Entrancing and disturbing" ALLAN MASSIE, The Scotsman\n"Michael Arditti tells a story of a Regency child star with great panache and compassion, bringing a forgotten celebrity back to life for the modern age. A compelling read I was sad to finish." LINDA GRANT\n"Michael Arditti is a writer who takes risks. His material is always compelling and provocative, his techniques sophisticated and oblique" PATRICIA DUNCKER, Independent on Sunday\n"Arditti is a master storyteller" PETER STANFORD, Observer

The Young Pretender

Biographies & Memoirs

ARDITTI, Michael

Arts & Literature

Arcadia Books

'An engrossing, enthralling and utterly captivating read,&nbsp;The Young Pretender&nbsp;tells a simply remarkable story with bounce, energy, wit, and lively authenticity . . . Michael Arditti's brilliant imaginative achievement offers high comedy, dark tragedy and everything between' STEPHEN FRY Mobbed by the masses, lionised by the aristocracy, courted by royalty and lusted after by patrons of both sexes, the child actor William Henry West Betty was one of the most famous people in Georgian Britain. At the age of thirteen, he played leading roles, including Romeo, Macbeth&nbsp;and Richard III, in theatres across the country. Prime Minister William Pitt adjourned the House of Commons so that its members could attend his debut as Hamlet at Covent Garden. Then, as rivals turned on him and scandal engulfed him, he suffered a fall as merciless as his rise had been meteoric. The Young Pretender takes place during Betty's attempted comeback at the age of twenty-one. As he seeks to relaunch his career, he is forced to confront the painful truths behind his boyhood triumphs. Michael Arditti's revelatory new novel puts this long forgotten figure back in the limelight. In addition to its rich and poignant portrait of Betty himself, it offers an engrossing insight into both the theatre and society of the age. The nature of celebrity, the power of publicity and the cult of youth are laid bare in a story that is more pertinent now than ever. 'Michael Arditti is a writer who takes risks. His material is always compelling and provocative, his techniques sophisticated and oblique' PATRICIA DUNCKER, Independent on Sunday 'Arditti is a master storyteller' PETER STANFORD, Observer

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Pagan is a five-year-old girl who has been orphaned by the death of her mother. The identity of her biological father is unknown. She has been left to the care of her mother's best friend, Leo. Her strait-laced grandparents seek custody of the child. They think that a single man is not the proper person to bring up a little girl. But when, in the course of the custody battle, they discover that Leo is gay, they are horrified. Leo is just as appalled at the idea of a child he loves being consigned to the care of people who barely know her and who cannot wait to change her name from Pagan to Patience. But he must make great sacrifices if he is to save her, not only from unhappiness, but from what he fears is a far graver threat to her well-being.

Pagan's Father

British & Irish

Soho Pr Inc

LGBTQ+ Books

Soho

"This is the story of a young man with his mind full of God and his heart closed to love. An ordinand, he has had a traumatic breakdown while serving at the altar. The Church has sent him to London, to confess to a therapist rather than a priest. In the course of his confession, he confronts the mysteries of his past: his Jewish heritage, his mother's death, his father's rejection, his wealth, his loneliness. His cure begins as he comes to terms with his own history and he can consider those more troubled than he." "He finds work in the slums of the East End guiding tours of Jack the Ripper's crime scenes. Living in an unfamiliar world of outcasts, rent-boys, fundamentalists, sadomasochists and AIDS sufferers, he is forced to face reality. He finally acknowledges physical passion, first for a humble rent boy and then for a sadistic pimp." "A conference for AIDS workers is held in a village in the wilds of Derbyshire, ironically, a place once devastated by The Great Plague of 1665 - 1666. And it is there that he reencounters Father Jonathan, the priest he had so admired at the time of his breakdown, with whom he at long last exchanges the kiss of peace."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Celibate

When his friend Candida dies and leaves her daughter, Pagan, in his custody, Leo Young, a popular British TV personality, must fight a legal battle to keep this child that he loves as his own and a battle of courage when his sexual preference is exposed

PAGAN'S FATHER- P

Contemporary

Soho Press

The unnamed narrator in this sensitive story is a young man with his mind full of God and his heart closed to love. An ordinand, he has had a breakdown while serving at the altar. The Church has sent him to a London therapist, rather than a priest, for confession. During the course of his cure, while living in an unfamiliar world of outcasts, fundamentalists, and AIDS sufferers, he is forced to face the reality of his own physical passion: first for a humble rent boy, then for a sadomasochistic pimp, and, finally, for a priest. The healing begins as he gradually comes to terms with his own history.

CELIBATE- P

Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd.

Pagan and Her Parents

Arditti's novel is both a devastating portrait of today's Church of England and an audatious reworking of the central myth of Western culture.

Easter

Arcadia Books Ltd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by ARDITTI, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by ARDITTI, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by ARDITTI, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Young Pretender

The Young Pretender

Pagan's Father

Pagan's Father

The Celibate

PAGAN'S FATHER- P

CELIBATE- P

The Celibate

Pagan and Her Parents

Easter