Meet the Panel
Simon Callow
One of the country’s most celebrated stage and screen actors, best known for his performances in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, A Room with a View and Shakespeare in Love. His many books include biographies of Oscar Wilde and Orson Welles, and a highly acclaimed biography of Dickens, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. He has written and starred in several one-man plays, including A Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, as well as The Mystery of Charles Dickens, which was written by Peter Ackroyd.
Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. Her ten novels and short-story collections, include The Joubert Family Chronicles (The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and now The Ghost Ship) – as well as the multi-million selling Languedoc Trilogy (Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter. The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears have together sold over 400,000 copies.
Her highly acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World. Celebrating the inspiration for Kate’s one-woman show which has been touring UK venues in Spring 2023 (a full list of her events can be found here: katemosse.co.uk/events).
The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and Non-Fiction, Kate is also the Founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and President of the Festival of Chichester.
The Ghost Ship will be launched in hardback, audio and eBook by Mantle (Pan Macmillan) in the UK and by Minotaur in the US on 6 July 2023. Exclusive editions will be available to independent bookshops in the UK.
David Goldthorpe
David Goldthorpe joined Sotheby’s as a trainee in 1996, following the completion of a Ph.D on the early English novel, and is now the head of the London and Paris Book Departments. During his tenure at Sotheby's, he has been involved in many important collections, including those of the Earls of Macclesfield, the late Lord Wardington, and most recently, the 2nd Baron Fairhaven. In 2010 he oversaw the sale of the Hesketh collection, including a copy of Audubon’s Birds of America which broke the record for the most valuable book sold at auction. In 2021 he played a key role in the sale to the nation of the Blavatnik/Honresfield library, the greatest collection of English literary manuscripts and books seen in several generations.
