Francesca Kay grew up in Southeast Asia and India, and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and now lives in Oxford. Her first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, and her second novel, The Translation of the Bones, was longlisted for the 2012 Women's Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Long Room, was published in 2016; The Book of Days is her fourth.
'A welcome throwback to the literate, witty style of such novelists as William Golding and Iris Murdoch ... Kay again proves herself an able chronicler of frustrated wishes and flaring passions’ - Observer 'At least that post-Reformation sovereignty of the word still yields novels as richly imagined and skilfully crafted as this' - The Spectator ‘Beautifully written and precisely observed’ - Sunday Times 'Absorbing ... This is historical fiction that is personal, not panoramic: intimate, hushed and spare' - Mail on Sunday 'This is a beautifully written and multi-faceted novel' – Historical Review