Joan Norlev TaylorJoan Norlev Taylor (or Joan Taylor, Joan E. Taylor) is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She is currently based in the UK, where she is Professor of Christian Origins at King's College London, but she returns as often as she can to her home in Marlborough, in New Zealand's South Island.
Her first novel, Conversations with Mr. Prain, was published by Melville House Publishing in New York in 2006, and re-issued with a new cover and reading group questions in 2011. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and collections in New Zealand and the UK. A narrative history, The Englishman, the Moor and the Holy City, was published by Tempus. Her second novel, kissing Bowie, was published by Seventh Rainbow, London, in September 2013. |
Conversations with Mr. Prain |
kissing Bowiekissing Bowie is a psychological mystery novel, mostly set in London in 1980 but also in the present day.
When Melbourne photographer Samantha Newell returns to London and confronts a guilty past, she begins to write a confession. She recounts the story of her Bowie-obsessed friend Laura, a long-lost love, cryptic notes and a mystery from the year 1980. As she tells of Laura’s strange world of fantasy, reality and fear, can she face what she bitterly regrets? Joan Taylor brings to life the gritty reality of a recent past and asks tough questions about the media and celebrity, then and now. With a plot that twists and shocks, this novel is an intense and personal journey with a punky anti-heroine and a window to the days when David Bowie ruled as revered youth icon. Published by Seventh Rainbow Publishing ASIN: B00EOT3CJO |
This is a conversation between Stella, a vivacious, aspiring writer and Bohemian eco-activist, and Edward Prain, a refined connoisseur of the rare books on hand in Stella’s fusty London bookstall.
While Prain is mysteriously aloof about his background, Stella finds his insights into art more and more stimulating, until one rainy afternoon she makes a surprising discovery: Prain is the head of England’s most prestigious publishing house and a leading collector of art. And now, he would like her to come to tea at his country estate… to discuss her writing. Stella is too intrigued to say no. Yet their cat-and-mouse game only intensifies at his sumptuous estate, where she finds herself engaged in an increasingly devilish conversation on the making of art, the selling of art, and the protection of self until Prain reveals that he knows more about her past than he has ever let on…. Published by Melville House Publishing, 2006; republished in 2011 ISBN 9781935554721 |