Join Suede founder member Mat Osman as he reveals the secrets behind his dazzling punk re-imagining of Elizabethan London, told through the eyes of a clairvoyant, bird worshiping protagonist and her unlikely theatre troupe.

On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city's fabled child theatre, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.

Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London's hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city's outcasts, the pair's relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come…

Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.

Book Mat Osman - The Ghost Theatre
Sat 11 May, 3.00pm

Mat Osman is the bassist and founder member of iconic British rock band Suede and a composer of music for TV and films. He also worked as a culture journalist during the noughties, writing about art and travel for papers, magazines and online..

The Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival is generously supported by Arts Council England (ACE), Royal Tunbridge Wells Together, Maxipay Accounting Services, and Berry and Lamberts Solicitors.