On a Balcony (Invincible Questions trilogy)

'On A Balcony is devoted to the 14th century [B.C.] and the Pharaoh Ikhnaton, his sister-wife Nefertiti, the sculptor Tutmose, and the rivalry his religion of Aton brought to Egypt and its then current cult of Amon... presenting Ikhnaton's imposition of a new religion upon those who look on him as a god.' Kirkus Review

'A fascinating study in royal neuroticism.' John Davenport, Observer

'A weird, subtle and compelling novel.' Time & Tide

'What is important about Mr Stacton is his originality. We cannot guess how his book is going to develop. We cannot trace influences on his writing or fit him into any preconceived literary scheme...There is a self-confidence about his writing that has no trace of vanity.' Times Literary Supplement.

David Stacton (1923-1968) was born Lionel Kingsley Evans in San Francisco. He attended Stanford University before serving in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II, eventually graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1951. Stacton went to Europe after college and ended up staying, in his words, 'because I liked it and because I could not get my books in print in America.' His first novel, Dolores, was published in England in 1954. Among the wide-ranging historical and biographical novels for which he would become best known are Remember Me, about Ludwig of Bavaria; On a Balcony, about Nefertiti and Pharaoh Akhenaten; Segaki, set in feudal Japan; A Signal Victory, about the Spanish conquest of the Yucatan; Old Acquaintance, set at a film festival and telling of the loves of a star resembling Marlene Dietrich; and People of the Book, set during the Thirty Years' War. In 1968 he moved to Fredensborg, Denmark, but ten days later he was found dead in his new home. He was forty-four years old.