True Freedom - How America came to fight Britain for its independence
by Michael Dean
Description
Set in Boston and London over sixteen years, True Freedom is a panoramic account of how America came to fight Britain for its freedom in the eighteenth century.
The Boston scene is set through vignettes about the people who shaped its history. Thomas Hutchinson, Boston aristocracy, whose wealth is seemingly unassailable. Self-taught medical doctor Thomas Young meets his hero Samuel Adams who is determined to have his revolution, supported from London by the radical politician John Wilkes.
True Freedom is full of vivid period details; you can almost smell Parliament in London or hear the clerks scribbling away in the American Department. So too, in Boston, you experience the might of the British navy in the harbour, and feel the determination of the Boston people to defy Parliament in London.
Together they form facets of the main character: the Boston uprising. In his novel Michael Dean takes us right to the heart of identity and sovereignty by focusing on personal relationships especially the one between brothers Thomas Pownall, Governor of Massachusetts and later a MP, and John Pownall, undersecretary of the American Department in London.
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Available rights: TRanslation, Educational and Simplified Reprint Rights
Endorsements
True Freedom is a fascinating insight into the breakdown in relations between the British government and the American colonies. Michael has a wonderful, almost Dickensian, ability to sketch out vivid and entertaining characters from the palsied Samuel Adams to the obsessive mandarin John Pownall. He wears his research lightly, guiding us through the complex tensions at play with page-turning ease. I thoroughly enjoyed True Freedom.’ – Stephan Collishaw, author of A Child Called Happiness and The Song of the Stork
‘The Boston Tea Party is well known; the events surrounding and leading up to it are less so. In this intelligent and meticulously researched novel, Michael Dean introduces readers to the major players and guides them expertly through the developments that, ultimately, led to the birth of a nation.’ – Catherine Hanley, author of The Sins of the Father and Whited Sepulchres
‘Meticulously researched, True Freedom reconstructs the events that helped spark the American revolution. Dean brings his cast of historical figures to life, exploring their political, ideological and often bitterly personal motivations.’ – Heather Richardson, author of Doubting Thomas
‘History buffs will relish Michael Dean’s meticulously researched True Freedom – a poignant account of how America fought the British for its independence. Chock full of period detail and colorful complex characters, Dean skillfully sets the scene, reconstructing the tensions and chain of events leading up to the Boston Tea Party – reflecting the passion of those bent on shaping history.’ – Lisa Barr, award-winning author of Fugitive Colors
Reviews
‘The remarkable achievement of this book is to show how the vested interests of British and American politicians collided (or not) and the reaction on each side of the Atlantic. This book is a masterpiece.
True Freedom can be highly recommended from both a literary and historical point of view.’ – Ruth Ginarlis in NB Magazine
‘Dean has a truly wonderful way of bringing people and places to life, which really takes you back to the past.
The reason I love this so much is that in his hands, history is never dry. I learn so much reading his work, and yet I never feel that I’m reading a history book or a historical fiction, I feel like I’m reading a moment in history.’ – Hermione Flavia on Bloglovin’
‘Its focus on interpersonal relationships of the key characters offer insight and readers see familiar events with a new understanding, enhanced by its tone of quiet commentary, which allows the drama to speak for itself.’ – Emma Lee on her blog
‘Dean deftly blends fiction with historical facts to create a highly entertaining as well as an educational read. He is a gifted storyteller and efficiently exploits the tensions between as different characters as chalk and cheese such as the aristocratic and opulent Thomas Hutchinson and his adversary, Samuel Adams and the Pownall brothers, Thomas and John who had starkly opposite views on America.’ – Debjani Ghosh on Debjani’s Thoughts
Author Biography
Michael Dean has a history degree from Worcester College, Oxford, an MSc in Applied Linguistics from Edinburgh University and a translator’s qualification (AIL) in German.
He has published several novels. The Darkness into Light omnibus (Sharpe Books, 2017): The Rise and Fall of the Nazis comprises five titles: Before the Darkness – about the German Jewish Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, assassinated in 1922; The Crooked Cross – about Hitler and art; The Enemy Within – about Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation; Hour Zero – about Germany in 1946; Magic City – a novel of Jewish identity set in Germany in the early 1970s.
He also published some stand-alone novels: Thorn, (Bluemoose Books, 2011) about Spinoza and Rembrandt; I, Hogarth (Duckworth-Overlook, 2012), which sets out to unify Hogarth’s life with his art; The White Crucifixion, a novel about Marc Chagall, was published by Holland Park Press in February 2018.
His non-fiction includes a book about Chomsky and many educational publications.
Holland Park Press
Holland Park Press is a privately-owned independent company publishing and selling literary fiction: novels, novellas, short stories; and poetry. It was founded in 2009. It is run by brother and sister, Arnold and Bernadette Jansen op de Haar, who publish an author not just a book. Holland Park Press specialises in finding new literary talent by accepting unsolicited manuscripts from authors all year round and by running competitions. It has been successful in giving older authors a chance to make their debut and in raising the profile of Dutch authors in translation.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Holland Park Press
- Publication Date June 2019
- ISBN/Identifier 9781907320866
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 10.99 GBP
- Pages305
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2019
- Dimensions216x138 mm
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