John Whitbourn cuts a unique figure in the world of speculative fiction. Entering the scene with A Dangerous Energy, which won the Gollancz Prize for Fantasy Fiction in 1992, he’s the author of numerous novels and short stories. He is perhaps best known for his fiction set in a fantasy version of Earth where the Reformation failed, the Catholic Church (bolstered by a monopoly over magic) reigns supreme, and England is still ruled by the Stuarts. Some of his fiction has been called “the first Jacobite propaganda in centuries” and a current of fascination with what our world and typical “Whig history” deems backward and retrograde is present throughout his work. Catholic though his sensibility may be, dark humor, ribaldry, and a keen appreciation for man’s smallness in the world run through his fiction.
