At the beginning of the 1650s, England was in ruins - wrecked, impoverished, grief-stricken by plague and civil war. Yet shimmering on the horizon was an intoxicating possibility, a vision of paradise: Willoughbyland.
Ambitious and free-thinking adventurers poured in, attracted by the toleration, the optimism, the rich soil and the promise of the gold of El Dorado. It was England's most hopeful colony.
But the Restoration saw the end of political freedom, and brought in its place spies, war, rebellion and treachery. The advent of racial slavery poisoned everything. What started out as a heaven was soon to become one of the cruellest places on earth.
The history of Willoughbyland is a microcosm of empire, its heady attractions and fatal dangers.
Vorwort
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Goldeneye and The Sugar Barons comes Willoughbyland the untold story of England's lost colony: a seventeenth-century tale of empire, El Dorado and violent rebellion, of spies, trickery and forbidden love.
Autorentext
MATTHEW PARKER's acclaimed books include Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born - Ian Fleming's Jamaica; Hell's Gorge; Monte Cassino and The Sugar Barons. Born in Central America in 1970, he spent part of his childhood in the West Indies. He has written for most British newspapers, as well as History Today, BBC History Magazine and the Literary Review. He lectures around the world and contributes to television and radio programmes in the UK and America. www.matthewparker.co.uk
Zusammenfassung
At the beginning of the 1650s, England was in ruins wrecked, impoverished, grief-stricken by plague and civil war. Yet shimmering on the horizon was an intoxicating possibility, a vision of paradise: Willoughbyland.Ambitious and free-thinking adventurers poured in, attracted by the toleration, the optimism, the rich soil and the promise of the gold of El Dorado. It was England's most hopeful colony. But the Restoration saw the end of political freedom, and brought in its place spies, war, rebellion and treachery. The advent of racial slavery poisoned everything. What started out as a heaven was soon to become one of the cruellest places on earth.The history of Willoughbyland is a microcosm of empire, its heady attractions and fatal dangers.
Inhalt
I: Foreword: Suriname River, 2014 One: 'Every Man's Longing' Two: El Dorado Three: Ralegh and the 'Beautiful Empire of Guiana' Four: The Heirs of Ralegh Five: Ralegh's Last Voyage Six: Francis Lord Willoughby Seven: 'A Brave Land' Eight: 'A Peculiar Form of Government' Nine: The Restoration: 'A Tumbling and Rolling World' Ten: Repression and Revolt Eleven: Aphra Behn, Agent 160 Twelve: Sugar, Slavery and Oroonoko Thirteen: The Return of Willoughby Fourteen: War and Ruin Fifteen: Astrea and Celadon Sixteen: The Fall of Fort Willoughby Seventeen: Victory and Anguish II: Postscript III: Acknowledgements IV: List of Illustrations V: Source Notes VI: Select Bibliography of Printed Sources VII: Index