Novelist with Reigate roots pens historical thriller (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Novelist with Reigate roots pens historical thriller

11:57am Monday 10th September 2012 in News

A former Reigate Grammar School and Reigate School of Art student, who has worked with such literary and art world giants as Anthony Burgess, Kingsley Amis and Andy Warhol, is set to have his first novel published.

Jeremy Cox will be going into print later this month with his historical thriller, The Burial Chamber.

Jeremy has weaved together the dark underworld of early 19th century London, the occult world of ancient Egypt, early advances in science, mesmerism and madhouses for his first book.

The Burial Chamber follows the fortunes of Robert Mountford, a young surgeon performing horrific procedures on his patients at a time before anaesthesia.

Set in the days when such bizarre treatments and 'cures' as sitting patients in revolving chairs and dunking them in tanks of freezing water were considered the cutting edge of medical science, The Burial Chamber charts Mountford's progress after attending a demonstration on mesmerism to find out if it could be used to relieve his patients’ suffering.

There, he meets the libertine John Fanshawe, who is haunted by a story of ancient Egyptian reincarnation involving his father, who disappeared when he was five years old.

Mountford’s entanglement with him finds him drawn into London’s underworld, from gentlemen’s clubs to the cells of Newgate prison and a run-down 18th century manor amongst the slum tenements of the East End.

The story's climax comes as Fanshawe claims ominous forces are set to bring his father’s evil presence back from the grave, and with Mountford, having mastered mesmerism, facing a showdown with what he senses to be an ancient and malevolent power being unleashed.

It is all a long way from the author's school days in leafy Reigate, where he was educated, before going into the world of book publishing.

His work took him into the areas of book design for Jonathan Cape, book sales at HarperCollins, and acting as publicity manager leading to promotion as marketing director at Hutchinson.

During this time he worked with a number of notable figures including the famous novelists Anthony Burgess and Kingsley Amis, and the ground-breaking artist Andy Warhol.

Jeremy left there to found a company publishing graphic guides to the great figures in science, philosophy and psychology, and now lives with his wife in North London. The Burial Chamber will be published by Stroud Green Books on Thursday, September 20, priced £8.99. Website: www.jeremy-cox.com