English Journeys Voices Of Akenfield by Ronald Blythe

×Īkenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe Michael Levy, Associate Director, Law Library Lecturer in Residence This historical novel was one of those happy reading surprises for me – set in an era I knew very little about, and had not been interested in - I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the story and the history it is based on fascinating. Harris doesn’t take sides in this war and its aftermath, neither royalists nor rebels being without blemish, though the fanatical Naylor has maybe more than most. They escape to New England, where unlike most other regicides, and with the help of sympathetic new world Puritans, they elude capture for years. Whalley and Goffe are relentlessly pursued on both sides of the Atlantic by Richard Naylor, the fictional and obsessed secretary of the Privy Council’s regicide committee. This is the fictionalized story of the manhunt for those regicides, specifically two of them, Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe, soldiers and staunch Puritans. Exempt from amnesty and mercy are the 59 “regicides” who signed Charles I’s death warrant. Parliament enacts an “Act of Oblivion”, granting amnesty to most supporters of Cromwell and the brief republic they established after executing Charles I. The monarchy has been restored, Charles II has been crowned king. Act of Oblivion is set in seventeenth century England and New England, following the death of Oliver Cromwell and the end of the English Civil War. Robert Harris has written historical novels set in World War II, including an alternate history where Hitler wins the war, ancient Rome, Pompei, and nineteenth century France.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris Marlene Harmon, Reference Librarian

English Journeys Voices Of Akenfield by Ronald Blythe