C. S. Quinn’s "Dark Stars"

CS Quinn is a bestselling author and journalist for The Times, The Guardian and The Mirror, alongside many magazines. Prior to journalism and fiction, her background in historic research won prestigious postgraduate funding from the British Art Council.

Combining historical research with far-flung travel experiences helped her create The Thief Taker series.

Here Quinn dreamcasts an adaptation of Dark Stars, the third book in the series:

I often develop characters with half a mind to actors or celebrities, just for fun. But Charlie Tuesday with his broken nose, scruffy blond hair and cockney charm is a tricky one. Robert Pattison is the picture currently on my mood board, but having just seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I think Eddie Redmayne would also be amazing.

I wrote ‘gypsy with a knife and a grudge’ Lily Boswell with Natalia Tena in mind – she’s an actress of Spanish heritage who features in Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, but it’s her singing for gypsy funk band Molotov Jukebox that had me thinking of this role.

The other characters are based on real people from the 1600s. King Charles II, his tempestuous mistress Lady Castlemaine … So I tend to use portraits and descriptions from the time. But I think Rufus Sewell made the best Charles II I’ve seen and I would love see someone uber-sexy cast as his troubled mistress - Barbara tends to get played by an older woman, but she was only 27 in her prime.

Visit C. S. Quinn’s website.

--Marshal Zeringue