White Gold - Softcover

Milton, Giles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340895098 ISBN 13: 9780340895092

Publisher: Sceptre, 2005

Synopsis

In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and 52 of his comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors - fanatical Islamic slave traders - had declared war on the whole of Christendom. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Sale in Morocco to be sold to the highest bidder. Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco, who bragged that his white slaves enabled him to hold all of Europe to ransom. The sultan was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. Thomas Pellow was selected to be a personal slave of the sultan and he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of the imperial Moroccan court, as well as experience of daily terror. For 23 years, he would dream of his home, his family and freedom. He was one of the fortunate few who survived to tell his told. Drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves and by the padres and ambassadors sent to free them, this shocking and extraordinary story reveals a disturbing and forgotten chapter of our history.

About this title

About the Author:

Giles Milton is a writer and historian. He is the internationally bestselling author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Big Chief Elizabeth, The Riddle and the Knight, White Gold, Samurai William, Paradise Lost, Wolfram and Russian Roulette. He has also written three novels and three children's books. His books have been translated into twenty languages. He lives in south London. Find out more about Giles and his books on his website, www.gilesmilton.com, and Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Milton, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/survivehistory and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/pages/Giles-Milton-Writer/121068034610842.

Review:

Giles Milton... has crafted an inspiration for those of us who believe that history can be exciting and entertaining * The Times * Giles Milton's narrative races along as he stitches together a story of heroism, sacrifice and misplaced zeal, painstakingly researched from contemporary writing and records * Observer * An extraordinary story which few people will be at all familiar with... an exciting and sensational account of a really swash-buckling historical episode * Philip Hensher, Spectator * Milton's story could scarcely be more action-packed, and its setting and subsidiary characters are as fantastic as its events. * The Sunday Times * Giles Milton has a gift for searching out odd and forgotten corners of history and turning them into bestselling books... this is not a dry history, but a full-blooded narrative closer in style to a historical novel than to an academic study. * William Palmer Literary Review *

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0340895098
• ISBN 13: 9780340895092
• Binding: Paperback