Carey, C J
Entry updated 13 November 2023. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Venezuelan-born journalist and author Jane Catherine Thynne (1961- ), in the UK from childhood; married to Philip Kerr until his death in 2018. Her fiction under her own name is nonfantastic; she is best known for the Clara Vine series of thrillers set in Germany before World War Two [not listed below]. She is of sf interest for the Rose Ransom sequence beginning with Widowland (2021) as by C J Carey, an Alternate History Hitler Wins series whose Jonbar Point is a submissive alliance arranged between King Edward VIII and Alfred Rosenberg at the end of the 1930s; the tale is set in occupied Dystopian 1950s Britain, whose Protector, Alfred Rosenberg [in real life (1893-executed 1946)], ensures that women are treated according to traditional Nazi values (see Feminism; Women in SF). These values, cogently unpacked here, were first exposed fictionally in Katharine Burdekin's Swastika Night (1937) as by Murray Constantine. Rose Ransom, the protagonist of Widowland, whose affair with an upper-level apparatchik leads to her undertaking the task of rewriting classic works of literature to accord with Nazi doctrine, is enlightened about the true nature of her world through contact with women over fifty, who are interned in the eponymous camp as they have passed childbearing age. A few years later, in the sequel Queen High (2022), she must liaise between President Eisenhower and Queen Wallis (widow of King Edward VIII); a secret-document McGuffin stirs the waters. [JC]
Jane Catherine Thynne
born Caracas, Venezuela: 5 April 1961
works (highly selected)
series
Rose Ransom
- Widowland (London: Quercus, 2021) as by C J Carey [Rose Ransom: hb/Nathan Burton]
- Queen High (London: Quercus, 2022) as by C J Carey [Rose Ransom: hb/]
- Queen Wallis (Toronto, Ontario: Sourcebooks, 2023) as by C J Carey [vt of the above: Rose Ransom: pb/]
links
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