A masterly historic novel about a fleet of English abolitionists, their ne-er-do-well neighbours and a fateful uptopian experiment. They say their devil is white.
It is 1792 and a group of English gentlemen is recruiting settlers for a new world. Anti-slavers, they foresee the shining vision of a free colony in Africa where all races and classes can live together in harmony.
At first, all seems well. More than a hundred men, women and children sail from London on board the Pharaoh. They are bound for Muranda, an island off the west coat of Africa that seems to be ideal: uninhabited,...