Jasper Kent (born 1968) is an English author and composer. As a composer his work is generally in the field of musical theatre and his novel series include the Danilov Quintet and the Charlie Woolf Mysteries.

Biography

Born in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England, Jasper was educated at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent day school for boys in the British public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by King Edward VI in 1552, it is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Bir ...

and read

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

(specializing in theoretical physics) at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. After graduating he worked as a software developer and consultant focusing on object-oriented languages such as

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

and C# and

template metaprogramming Template metaprogramming (TMP) is a metaprogramming technique in which templates are used by a compiler to generate temporary source code, which is merged by the compiler with the rest of the source code and then compiled. The output of these t ...

. Notable clients have included Citigroup,

Deloitte and Touche Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

, BP,

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other pro ...

and the UNICC. Jasper also provides training courses for Learning Tree International. Kent has worked for almost twenty years in musical theatre as a singer, instrumentalist, musical director and composer. He has performed backing vocals for various artistes including

Hinge and Bracket Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket were characters devised by George Logan and Patrick Fyffe for their comedy and musical act. Hinge and Bracket were elderly, intellectual female musicians; in these personae the male Logan and Fyffe play ...

, Stig Rossen and

Russell Watson Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. He began singing as a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club. He came to attention in 1999 when he sang "God ...

and in the role of musical director has conducted, amongst others, Lucy Montgomery and

Daniel Boys Daniel Boys (born 26 March 1979) is an English musical theatre actor, who was a contestant on the BBC talent series '' Any Dream Will Do'' in 2007 before becoming known as a stage actor in various musicals including ''Avenue Q'', ''Spamalot'' an ...

. His four complete musicals are ''Writer’s Cramp'' and ''Malvolio’s Revenge'' (both written with Robert Renton) and ''The Promised Land'' and ''Remember! Remember!'' (with Robert Piatt and Robert Starr). ''The Promised Land'' was commissioned for and performed as part of the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations in 1996. ''Remember! Remember!'', a musical dramatization of the events of the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sough ...

of 1605, has been produced as a studio CD recording and was premiered in Lewes, Sussex, England in October 2008. Jasper lives in the coastal Sussex town of Brighton.

Novels

Jasper is best known as the author of ''Twelve'', a supernatural historical thriller set during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. The website Fantasy Book Review has ranked ''Twelve'' in sixth place in its list of all-time greatest historical fantasy novels. It has been translated into French, Polish, Italian and Turkish. ''Twelve'' is the first novel in the Danilov Quintet, which spans Russian history from the French invasion of 1812 to the Russian Revolution of 1917.http://www.jasperkent.com/#DanilovQuintet-Twelve Jasper Kent's official website The second instalment, ''Thirteen Years Later'', culminating in the

Decembrist Uprising The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Ale ...

of 1825, was released in the UK in 2010, the third, ''The Third Section'', in 2011 and the fourth, ''The People's Will'', in 2013. The last book of the series, ''The Last Rite'', was published in 2014. ''Late Whitsun'' is the first Charlie Woolf Mystery, set in Brighton, England in 1938. It was published in 2016 and blends aspects of both murder mystery and espionage. Two further stories in the series have working titles of ''The Stalactite Man'' and ''To Muddy Death'' (a reference to the death of

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama '' Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends u ...

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

). Additionally, Jasper has written two as yet unpublished novels, ''Yours Etc''., ''Mr Sunday'', a murder mystery set in Brighton, and ''Sifr'', a contemporary thriller encompassing cryptography and the discoveries of Roger Bacon.http://www.johnjarrold.co.uk/clients/kent-jasper/ John Jarrold Literary Agency's website

Published works

Books The Danilov Quintet * * * * * Charlie Woolf * Albums *(2005) Remember! Remember! 2 Bob Productions.

References

External links

Jasper Kent's website

Official website for ''Remember! Remember!''
*
Story Behind People's Will by Jasper Kent - Online Essay

REVIEW : The People's Will
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Jasper 1968 births People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge British historical novelists English crime fiction writers English horror writers Living people