Rose Biggin

ROSE BIGGIN is a writer and theatre artist living in London. Her short fiction has been published in anthologies by Abaddon Books, Mango, Jurassic London, Betwixt Magazine, Brigids Gate Press and Egaeus Press, made the recommended reading list for Best of British Fantasy (NewCon Press), and won the Dark Sire’s Gothic Fiction Prize. Her first novel WILD TIME (Surface Press) is a punk revision of pleasure and power in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

She is author of Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience (Palgrave Macmillan), she works as a performer across theatre and live art, and has recently joined the Creative Writing faculties at CityLit and Birkbeck.

Rose’s novel, The Belladonna Invitation, was published by Ghost Orchid Press in July 2023.

ROSE: A gothic spin on Alexandre Dumas fils’ The Lady of the Camellias was an idea that came almost fully formed – the novel inspired Verdi’s opera La Traviata, Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge! – and there was inspiration in realising her story could be told through her assistant: a power struggle between two principle women. It’s a story that asks: how far will we go to get what we want, and how much are we willing to let it change us? The writing style and shimmering fin de siècle Paris setting comes from my love of Decadent fiction – there’s reference to Huysmans’ A Rebours in there, there’s some Wilde, a world where everything is performance and illusion. That’s just me having fun.