Philoctetes lives in a cave on a desolate island: the wartime hero is now a wounded outcast. Stranded for ten years, he sees a chance of escape when a young solider appears with tales of Philoctetes' past glories. But with hope comes suspicion - and, as an old enemy emerges, he is faced with an even greater temptation: revenge.
Kate Tempest is now widely acknowledged as a revolutionary force in contemporary British poetry; she has also distinguished herself as musician and a dramatist, and continues to expand the range of her work with a new version of Sophocles' Philoctetes in a bold new translation. Like Brand New Ancients before it, Paradise shows Tempest's gift for lending the old tales an immediate contemporary relevance - and will find this timeless story a wide new audience.
'Kate Tempest has a gift for shattering and transcending convention.' New York Times

Kae Tempest is a poet. They are also a writer, a lyricist, a performer and a recording artist. They have published plays, poems, a novel, a book-length essay, released albums and toured extensively, selling out shows from Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro. They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos, and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons. They were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once-in-a-decade accolade. They received the Ted Hughes Award for their long-form narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D¿Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright. Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. They were born in London in 1985 where they still live. They hope to continue putting words together for a long time.