Niccolo Rising: Book One of the House of Niccolo: Book 1 (House of Niccolo S.) - Softcover

Dunnett, Dorothy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375704779 ISBN 13: 9780375704772

Publisher: Vintage Books, 1999

Synopsis

With the bravura storytelling and pungent authenticity of detail she brought to her acclaimed Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett, grande dame of the historical novel, presents The House of Niccol series. The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire.

About this title

Review:

"Dunnett's skill at mixing historical events and personages with fascinating fictive characters provides for high adventure, royal intrigues, war and passion.........The finest living writer of historical fiction." --The Washington Post Book World

"Mrs. Dunnett's gift lies in her ability to take history's bare bones and invest them with life. She does this by creating. . .characters whose humor and pathos reach across centuries." --The Christian Science Monitor

About the Author:

Dorothy Dunnett was born in 1923 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Her time at Gillespie's High School for Girls overlapped with that of the novelist Muriel Spark. From 1940-1955, she worked for the Civil Service as a press officer. In 1946, she married Alastair Dunnett, later editor of The Scotsman.

Dunnett started writing in the late 1950s. Her first novel, The Game of Kings, was published in the United States in 1961, and in the United Kingdom the year after. She published 22 books in total, including the six-part Lymond Chronicles and the eight-part Niccolo Series, and co-authored another volume with her husband. Also an accomplished professional portrait painter, Dunnett exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions and had portraits commissioned by a number of prominent public figures in Scotland.

She also led a busy life in public service, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Scotland, a Trustee of the Scottish National War Memorial, and Director of the Edinburgh Book Festival. She served on numerous cultural committees, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1992 she was awarded the Office of the British Empire for services to literature. She died on November 9, 2001, at the age of 78.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0375704779
• ISBN 13: 9780375704772
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496