Another absorbing exploration of lives lived in far off times from the Sunday Times bestselling  author of Goldeneye and The Sugar Barons.  This time, in Willoughbyland, Matthew Parker explores and reveals the untold story of England’s lost colony in Guina. It is  a seventeenth-century tale of empire, El Dorado and violent rebellion, of spies, trickery and forbidden love.

Parker opens with a Foreword in which he travels to dense relentless jungle, searching for traces of the English pioneers and refugees who fled the turmoil of the post English Civil War years. Were they chasing a dream? Of course. After all, the reality of post English Civil War was not a bundle of laughs with its grief and poverty, especially for the Cavaliers who were not Oliver Cromwell’s favourite dish of the week.

I was delighted to review this book, because it is a period that fascinates, and I have always pondered on the fate of the Cavaliers, hustled off into exile.

In this case, a group of Cavaliers set sail for the Amazon and Orinoco rivers following in Sir Walter Raleigh’s footsteps. They set up a new settlement named after its founded, Sir Francis Willoughby. Thus was Willoughbyland born.

Parker sucks up the atmosphere for us, we bathe in it. We breathe in the scent of oranges, and suffer in the humidity, we begin to understand how the dream of the explorers fades in the face of incoming planters and traders. Things grow more complicated as mercenaries and soldiers follow political dissidents and increasingly the dream turns sour. Terror and cruelty become the norm. Sugar is produced, slaves are introduced …

This is an intelligent and evocative examination of a period in history that Parker reveals as a microcosm of the history of empire, with its heady attractions and appalling dangers.

Prepare to BE there, feel the heat, absorb the facts, and understand the English past just a little bit more. Well done, Matthew Parker. I knew nothing of this, and now I do. Fascinating. Good jacket too.

Published in Hardback by Hutchinson. £16.99

Also available in eBook