{{Short description|British writer}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Susan Kay | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = Susan Kay | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1952}} | birth_place = Manchester, England | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|df=yes|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Novelist | language = English | nationality = British | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = 1985–1990 | genre = Historical fiction | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | partner = | children = 2 | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }}
'''Susan Kay''' (born 1952) is a British writer, the author of two award-winning novels: ''Legacy'' and ''Phantom''.
==Biography== Kay was born on 1952 in Manchester, England. She worked as a primary school teacher until leaving to bring up a family, and now lives with her husband and two children in Cheshire.
==Works== Kay’s first novel was ''Legacy'' (1985), about the life of Queen Elizabeth I and won a Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize and a Betty Trask Award in 1985.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.societyofauthors.org/betty-trask-past-winners| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110722223137/http://www.societyofauthors.org/betty-trask-past-winners| archive-date = 2011-07-22| title = Betty Trask Past Winners {{!}} Society of Authors - Protecting the rights and furthering the interests of authors}}</ref>
Her second novel, ''Phantom'' (1991), expands upon the history of Erik, the hideous, brilliant character from Gaston Leroux's ''The Phantom of the Opera'', in an episodic format of seven chapters from different characters' points of view – first Erik's mother, immediately revolted by her own son; then Erik as a boy being exhibited as a circus freak; then Giovanni, a character of Kay's creation, who takes him in; then Nadir, known in Leroux's novel as the Persian, who is greatly expanded upon and gives an account of Erik in the bloodiest days of his life; then Erik, describing how he settled into his role as Phantom of the Opera; then a back-and-forth narrative between Erik and Christine Daaé, whom he loves obsessively; and lastly, Raoul de Chagny, Erik's rival, giving the denouement. She did not travel to Iran to research the novel, <!--contrary to the previous Wikipedia entry,-->although she did research in person at the Paris Opera House. The novel won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association in 1991.<ref name="RoNAAwards">{{Citation|title=Awards by the Romantic Novelists' Association|url=http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/index.php/awards|date=14 July 2012}}</ref>
==Bibliography== * ''Legacy'' (1985) * ''Phantom'' (1990)
==References and sources== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} *{{cite web |url=http://www.kaysphantom.com |title=Susan Kay's Phantom Plans Info on book |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301001719/http://kaysphantom.com/ |archivedate=1 March 2009 |df=dmy-all }} *{{cite web |url=http://www.ladyghost.com/susan_kay.html |title=Susan Kay interview by Ladyghost |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102080825/http://www.ladyghost.com/susan_kay.html |archivedate=2 January 2011 |df=dmy-all }} *{{Citation|title=Susan Kay at FantasticFiction|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/susan-kay|date=14 July 2012}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Susan}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century English novelists Category:Writers from Manchester Category:British historical novelists Category:British women historical novelists Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Category:20th-century English women novelists