Green Ink
THE TIMES 'Fascinating' Books To Look Out For 2025
Will be published approx. on 12. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-80075-469-0 (ISBN)
Description
THE TIMES BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025
'Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events' The Times
'Very fine and fun novel' The Spectator
'Skilfully orchestrates a large cast of both historical and fictional characters' Financial Times
'The spry, sardonic voice of the new historical fiction' Hilary Mantel
'Vivid and wholly credible recreation of post-Great War London' Robert Edric
'Intrigue, betrayal, redemption' Rachel Seiffert
David Lloyd George is at Chequers for the weekend with his mistress Frances Stevenson, fretting about the fact that his involvement in selling public honours is about to be revealed by one Victor Grayson. Victor is a bisexual hedonist and former firebrand socialist MP turned secret-service informant. Intent on rebuilding his profile as the leader of the revolutionary Left, he doesn't know exactly how much of a hornet's nest he's stirred up. Doesn't know that this is, in fact, his last day.
No one really knows what happened to Victor Grayson - he vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about the prime minister's involvement in selling honours. Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent?
Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today.
'Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events' The Times
'Very fine and fun novel' The Spectator
'Skilfully orchestrates a large cast of both historical and fictional characters' Financial Times
'The spry, sardonic voice of the new historical fiction' Hilary Mantel
'Vivid and wholly credible recreation of post-Great War London' Robert Edric
'Intrigue, betrayal, redemption' Rachel Seiffert
David Lloyd George is at Chequers for the weekend with his mistress Frances Stevenson, fretting about the fact that his involvement in selling public honours is about to be revealed by one Victor Grayson. Victor is a bisexual hedonist and former firebrand socialist MP turned secret-service informant. Intent on rebuilding his profile as the leader of the revolutionary Left, he doesn't know exactly how much of a hornet's nest he's stirred up. Doesn't know that this is, in fact, his last day.
No one really knows what happened to Victor Grayson - he vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about the prime minister's involvement in selling honours. Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent?
Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today.
Reviews / Votes
'May has a nose for historical curiosities ... good at capturing the cynical mood of the 1920s, the world of flappers and traumatised veterans and corrupt swells ... Clever and playful' - Robbie Millen, The Times 'May skilfully orchestrates a large cast of both historical and fictional characters ... the novel's period detail is impeccable ... One of its chief pleasures is the authorial voice, which, with its maxims on pity, ambition, boredom and so forth, is of an omniscience rarely encountered in contemporary fiction' - Financial Times 'An idiosyncratic, rather dreamlike novel: it doesn't so much bring history to life as use a clutch of historical figures to showcase the author's own captivatingly offbeat intelligence' - Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph 'May has found his forte speculating on the 'what ifs' of history. That he imbues his story with a rallying call for feminism and neatly solves the mystery surrounding the narrator only further increases my admiration for this very fine and fun novel' - Susie Mesure, The Spectator 'Striking and entertaining, with something joyful on every page ... this is a novel that uses history as its springboard ... prose is sharp and bright, with a nice aphoristic quality that makes each page seem nutritious. Green Ink is a grand, provocative entertainment' - John Self, The Critic 'Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events, which he then gives the fictional treatment' - The Times Books to Look Out For In 2025 'It might be set in 1920, but Stephen May's smart, sardonic novel has plenty to say about today's world' Irish Times 'Intrigue, betrayal, redemption - a glimpse behind the political scenes of a bygone British era that feels very contemporary' - Rachel Seiffert 'Green Ink is a wonderful confection - with obvious echoes today - and has a prose style as nimble as a maitre d at rush hour' - Crack Magazine, Book of the Month Praise for Sell Us the Rope'Original, adept and confident... What can I say, except that I wish I had written it myself?' Hilary Mantel
'A deeply satisfying novel. Incisive, inventive, frequently very funny' Guardian
'Historical facts furnish May with a cast of legends to bring to life, and he does it with verve and humour' The Times
'Brilliant and original - part historical novel, part romantic comedy, and part bildungsroman about a tyrant-in-waiting' Marcel Theroux
'A captivating thought-experiment that marks a consolidation of May's powers as a writer' Daily Telegraph
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
240 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80075-469-0 (9781800754690)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2025
Swift Press
€9.59
Available for download
Person
Stephen May is the author of six novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader's Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire.