Quicksilver may be the tale of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing understanding in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era European countries, in a chaotic globe where reason wars using the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, organic or otherwise, can transform the political landscape overnight.

It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of ‘Half-Cocked Jack’ Shaftoe — London road urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the on the subject of Quicksilver: Volume One of The Baroque Routine Vagabonds — risking existence and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from your pox.

Which is the story of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to be spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.

A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its own momentous events to brilliant life, Quicksilver is an amazing achievement in one of the most original and essential literary skills of our period.

And it’s really just the beginning …

Performed by Simon Prebble and Stina Nielsen