Age: 61
male
Tim Firth is a screenwriter, playwright and song writer from North West England. He first came to fame with his Screen One drama Money For Nothing in 1993, and followed it up a year later with two BBC TV series; Once Upon a Time in the North and the award winning All Quiet on the Preston Front. Other TV works include the childrens series, The Rottentrolls, Border Cafe, Flint Street Nativity and Cruise of the Gods. His film credits include Calendar Girls, Blackball, Kinky Boots and The Wedding Video. His theatre credits include This is My Family, Neville's Island, The Safari Party, The Flint Street Nativity, and the musical Our House (West End, Olivier Award Best Musical). His play Calendar Girls broke all British records for a professional and amateur play, was nominated for an Olivier and won the Whatsonstage Best Comedy Award. Firth subsequently co-wrote the story as a musical alongside Take That's Gary Barlow, which opened at Leeds Opera house and transferred to the Phoenix Theatre in the West End, winning a Whatsonstage Award and an Olivier nomination. More recently, Firth has continued his writing partnership with Barlow to produce the hugely successful musical, The Band.
Marah Levi is a promising violinist who excels at school and can read more languages than most librarians. Even so, she has little hope of a bright future: she is a sparker, a member of the oppressed lower class in a society run by magicians. Then a mysterious disease hits the city of Ashara, turning its victims’ eyes dark before ultimately killing them. As Marah watches those whom she loves most fall ill, she finds an unlikely friend in Azariah, a wealthy magician boy. Together they pursue a cure in secret, but more people are dying every day, and time is running out. Then Marah and Azariah make a shocking discovery that turns inside-out everything they thought they knew about magic and about Ashara, their home.
