Nothing Becoming

She’s a tomboy.
Her brother’s missing.
Now she has to pretend to be him. Six-year-old Tyke is the spit of her half-brother, Mark, but there’s one crucial difference: Tyke is the result of rape. When her father sails into their Devon fishing village in 1695, Mark, to protect their Ma, decides to kill him. But the plan goes wrong and Mark goes missing.\nTyke’s mother dresses her daughter as her son to get money from Mark’s grandmother. Tyke moves into Mrs Read’s London home and gets the education of a ‘young gentleman’. When a one-armed pirate arrives, her world up-ends. She is forced to become a servant, but at least she can take comfort in her new friend Jim.\nThen puberty hits, and even her body seems to turn against her, threatening to reveal her secret. If she stops being ‘Mark’, she could lose everything. But how far will she go to stay free?\nScroll up and press 'Buy Now' to meet the young Mary Read, soon to become the fiercest female pirate of them all.\n"This mesmerising novel is lyrical, visceral and vivid" - Maggie Brookes,author of Acts of Love and War\n"a riveting read with irresistible characters you’d want to befriend in real life" - Patience Agbabi, author of The Infinite
Praise for The Marlowe Papers (Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, Longlisted: for the Women’s Fiction Prize.) "Themes of identity and self-esteem, of truth and loyalty, give substance to Barber's enthralling plot in a work that combines historical erudition with a sharply satisfying read. Marlowe's passion infects the page; Barber's skill draws the fever." - The Independent\n"a remarkable book."
The New York Times\n"This rich and charmingly playful work avoids the potential for whimsy inherent in such an undertaking. The thrill at reimagining the events and era comes through wave after wave in Barber’s blank verse."
- The Telegraph\n"The best read, so far, this year." - The Express\n"An accomplished writer, she composes effective blank verse and is playful with form: her research into Marlowe's documented life forms a series of gripping flashbacks, and her introduction to a cast of characters from the theatre and the court is deft" - Times Literary Supplement\n"the Marlowe Papers thunders along like an episode of some Elizabethan 24." - Literary Review\n"With the screw-tightening verve of a great thriller and the romantic pull of Renaissance poetry, the novel — which purports that Marlowe is the true author of William Shakespeare’s legendary oeuvre — is a gripping, lyrical, most unlikely page-turner." - American Way Praise for Devotion (Longlisted: Encore Award 2015. Featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.) "compelling... a novel so animated with fascinating, troubling ideas."
- The Guardian\n"The focus may be on the eternal questions but it is Barber’s ability to capture the small details of humanity that makes Devotion worth the read." - The Financial Times\n"Intelligent, poetic writing ... Barber weaves together the struggles of these complex characters with taut, high-stakes encounters in episodic chapters, making this a pacy novel in spite of the weighty subject matter; and barely a word is misplaced." - Times Literary Supplement\n"Barber’s prose is compelling" - The Independent\n“Barber's sensational premise delivers an unexpectedly piercing exploration of loss and different kinds of faith.” - Kirkus\n“Barber's poetic prose is a sheer pleasure to read, and because of her skill, the book is a rewarding meditation on the tragedies that motivate or destroy a person's reasons for living.” - Publishers’ Weekly