A Win for The Emperor's Gold

THE EMPEROR'S GOLD
wins HWA/Goldsboro Crown
for Debut Historical Fiction!

Robert Wilton took the crown last night at this year's HWA/Goldsboro Award for his brilliant debut historical novel, The Emperor's Gold.

Set in 1805 as Napoleon prepares to invade Britain, the action and intrigue is propelled by the strange career and exploits of one man, the dark and ambiguous Tom Roscarrock. But perhaps the real story is the organisation moving, appropriately enough, in the shadows behind him: the mysterious Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey.

Robert Wilton has worked in a number of Departments of the British Government over the last fifteen years, including a stint as Private Secretary to three successive UK Secretaries of State for Defence. He was advisor to two Prime Ministers of Kosovo in the period leading up to the country's independence, and he has now returned there as head of policy for the international office monitoring and advising the Kosovo Government. He's co-founder of The Ideas Partnership, an NGO stimulating and supporting projects in education, culture and the environment. 

'A sparkling gem of a novel; not only a gripping espionage thriller that has the extra thrill of being grounded in genuine history, but a beautiful, lyrical novel alive with the sheer joy of language. Literate, intelligent, utterly captivating. Not since Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' has a novel been so drenched in a sense of time and place - and this has a plot that blows all comers out of the water.' --M C Scott