Of Men and Angels

The divine vengeance wreaked on the city of Sodom is one of the most enduring and influential myths of all time. Michael Arditti's monumental work explores its creation, dissemination, and application in five key historical epochs.

The characters range from exiled Jews and temple prostitutes in Nebuchadrezzar's Babylon to guildsmen putting on a mystery play in medieval York; from Sandro Botticelli frescoing a courtroom in Renaissance Florence to a Victorian canon escorted by the Bedouin around the Dead Sea; and a Hollywood star, afflicted by AIDS, filming a biblical epic on the destruction of Sodom.

Michael Arditti is a novelist, short story writer, and critic. His novels include The Celibate (1993), Pagan and her Parents (Pagan's Father in the USA) (1996), Easter (2000), Unity (2005), A Sea Change (2006), The Enemy of the Good (2009), Jubilate (2011) and The Breath of Night (2013). His short story collection, Good Clean Fun, was published in 2004. He was awarded a Harold Hyam Wingate scholarship in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund fellowship in 2001, an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial award in 2003, and Arts Council awards in 2004 and 2007. He was the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Freud Museum in 2008. His novels have been short- and long-listed for several literary awards and Easter won the inaugural Waterstone's Mardi Gras Award. In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester. He is currently theater critic of the Sunday Express.