John Boyne

When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: ‘For Oscar Wilde, posing Sodomite’. The most feted playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death.

The award winning author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne, joins us to talk about his wildly imaginative and brilliantly written ‘what if’ take on these events – what might have happened if the master of the bon mot had ignored The Marquess’s homophobic note and lived to enjoy a landmark career both as a writer and “influencer’.

‘The Weight of Angels is a marvellous conceit - a word Oscar himself might employ. The book is at once highly readable and an intellectual treat.’ John Banville (novelist)