Marzipan: A Confection is a hypertext experiment based on my Master of Arts (Research) Thesis in Creative Writing, undertaken at the University of Melbourne between 2002-2004. This confection will become more rich and flavoured over time and will also feature historical and ephemeral information about Marzipan.

The Thesis, a 30,000 word novella, describes the invention of Marzipan in a fictional German town during a Famine in the 1400s. The narrative is broken into four Parts, corresponding to three relatively undisputed ingredients of Marzipan (namely Eggs, Almonds and Sugar), plus a Secret ingredient. While the secret ingredient cannot yet be revealed, this site maps its history and terrain, offering some hints as to Marzipan’s general composition and effects.

If you would like to know more about the history of Marzipan, read The Invention of Marzipan, a partly-confected essay on this most useful of substances, based on the introductory section of my Thesis. The essay was originally presented as part of the Secrecy Symposium at the University of Melbourne in 2004, convened by Hilary McPhee and Dr John Cash.

The Spirals of Marzipan (left) is a schematic for a possible structure of my novel(la), Marzipan: a Confection. It was constructed by superimposing four identical spirals, whose meeting points would thus represent cvorrespondences or links between each of the four narrative strands of the work.

When superimposed, the spirals reveal a possible atomic structure diagram, gesturing towards a partly futuristic and partly medieval schematic for the actual chemical compositon of ‘Marzipan’, or Mz.