Description

Barry Unsworth returns for the landscape of his Booker prize winning book Sacred Starvation, this time around following Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, daughter of the Liverpool slave ship operator who hanged herself. It's the spring of 1767, and to avenge his father's demise, Erasmus Kemp has already established the edgy sailors of his father's vessel, including Sullivan, cut back to London to stand trial on charges of piracy and mutiny. But whilst the book starts, a blithe Sullivan has fled and is making his way by walking towards the north of England, robbing as he moves and resting where he can.His location is Thorpe within the East Durham coalfields, where his lifeless shipmate, Billy Blair, resided: he's pledged to inform the household how Billy fulfilled his end.In this town, Billy's sister, Nan, and her miner partner, David Bordon, reside using their three kids, all meant to check out their dad down the hole. His last summer aboveground the newest, only seven, is experiencing.