Stourton, Ivo 1982–

PERSONAL:

Born 1982. Education: Graduated with high honors from the University of Cambridge; studying towards becoming a city attorney.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Agent—The Ampersand Agency, Ryman's Cottages, Little Tew, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 4JJ, England.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

The Night Climbers: A Novel, Simon Spotlight Entertainment (New York, NY), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

Film rights for The Night Climbers have been optioned.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer Ivo Stourton was born in 1982 and grew up splitting his time between London, Paris, and Washington, DC. He attended the University of Cambridge, eventually graduating with honors and a double first in English, then went on to study to become a city attorney. In 2007, he published his first book, The Night Climbers: A Novel. The book centers on a group of friends who band together to commit art fraud, the result of which is a swindle worth millions of pounds. The action revolves around James Walker, a wealthy and successful lawyer who, despite his somewhat humble beginnings growing up in Hoxton, a middle-class area, managed to attend Cambridge University and graduate from Oxbridge College, known as one of the more prestigious divisions of the university. It was there that Walker first met Michael Findlay, an upper-crust sort who appeared in his room one night and whisked him off to join his group of friends, known as the Tudor Night Climbers. The group, all of whom are rich, spend much of their time clamoring over the rooftops of the university and the town and are intent on doing nothing so much as enjoying themselves. The group's ringleader appears to be Francis Manley, the most decadent of the pleasure seekers. Walker is particularly enamored of Francis, and once he joins the Night Climbers, he spends a good portion of his time with the group listening to Francis talk about his exciting and exotic life. Francis's father, a lord, is seeking a position in politics, and Francis himself has been raised in Zimbabwe, which gives all of his stories an even more exotic flare in Walker's estimation. Walker also sees Francis as a kind of entré into a lifestyle that he finds highly attractive and otherwise unattainable, one that prior to attending university he had only seen in the photos of glossy magazines about society. Walker also teams up with Jessica Katz, a beautiful and intriguing young woman in the Night Climbers who also finds Francis fascinating, and together they serve as a sort of safety net for Francis's misadventures as his behavior becomes more erratic.

Gradually, as Walker spends more time in Francis's company, he begins to understand that Francis is a troubled young man for all of his wealth and creativity. His debts and family troubles become steadily more apparent, until Francis's father threatens to cut him off and Francis dreams up a get-rich-quick scheme in self-defense. Both Walker and Jessica get drawn into Francis's plan, which involves a Picasso forgery, and which goes downhill fast. The book, which features a steady sense of disillusionment as Walker begins to realize the truths about his friend, has been compared in some respects to Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which shared a number of the same themes of identity and friendship. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews opined that "Stourton's debut treads a charmless path in its observation of a dull outsider's magnetized attraction to a reckless and morally questionable group of beautiful people." A reviewer for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography Web site commented that "The Night Climbers is a fine example of deep plot and deep characterization coming together; because the more the plans for the caper continue, the more we also learn about the relationship these people have because of the obscene amount of money they all blow through." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly declared that "the novel juggles too many story lines to sustain the suspense needed for such a complicated tale," but ultimately found that Stourton himself showed talent and promise. Michael Leonard, writing for the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site, concluded that "the author's beautifully measured writing style and his willingness to portray the seamier, more decadent side of upper-class college life provides much to admire in this morally ambiguous and quite suspenseful first novel."