1. A Writer’s Tide

And so the publication of my second book, and the first time through a publisher, has happened. A Slaver’s Tide is about the lead up to the abolition of the slave trade in England in the early 1800s. Now people might think it ties into ideas of wokeness, the fight against racism and England’s colonial legacy, including its support for the slave trade over the course of a couple of centuries. And they would be right.

The first draft of this story was written more than 15 years ago. I sent it off to some publishers thinking it was going to be a best seller and nothing. Other than a bunch of rejection letters. Which as a writer you both get used to seeing and never quite to used to the feeling it leaves after reading one. Or two, or too many!

It took so long to get published because of life, because of kids arriving, because of work and family and a parents long slow decline and well, you know the rest. But over the last few years I have written another book, The Chancer’s Corps, about the Rum Rebellion in Sydney in the early 1800s. Its a bit of a larrikin swashbuckler complete with a genuine Hollywood villain in Captain Bligh (from the Mutiny on the Bounty). And it's based on actual events. In Australia in 1808 soldiers of the New South Wales Corps overthrew the Governor of the colony of Sydney, the one and only William Bligh. (If you’re interested its on Amazon https://www.amazon.com.au/Chancers-Corps-James-Page/dp/1922618365/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OF7S0FU3BFUT&keywords=The+Chancer%27s+Corp&qid=1654657243&sprefix=the+chancer%27s+corp%2Caps%2C244&sr=8-1). A couple of people who have read it (I won’t name them all but probably could) have encouraged me to keep writing so I revisited A Slaver’s Tide and rewrote it.

But none of this is telling you what A Slaver’s Tide is about. It's the story of the slave ship Charlotte, becalmed in the Atlantic with a hold full of slaves and running low on water. The captain of the Charlotte, George Tyler does the unthinkable and dumps more than 100 men and women into the Atlantic to die. Then he sails to Jamaica, sells the rest of the cargo and heads back to England, and into a right, royal storm. Arrested and tried for murder, Tyler becomes the face of the slave trade; on one side the slave traders work to defend Tyler to protect the rivers of money made off slaving, and on the other are the abolitionists, led by Thomas Clarkson and seeing a conviction for Tyler as a means to help end the trade.

Both sides want a piece of Tyler. The slavers want him acquitted and sailing again, the abolitionists want him to hang, and if not, then to recant the trade. And in the midst of it all is Tyler himself, lost, imprisoned and wrestling with his conscience. Trying to figure out what he wants, all while hoping he doesn’t hang.

Its not a long book, less than 200 pages, but it's a good read, and hopefully you might pick up a few things about how the slave trade operated, the reasons why men ran it and a little about how we got to here and now. With countries with a history of slaving calling for reparations, and a legacy that is still being debated today. Happy reading.

A Slaver’s Tide is available through Austin Macauley Publishers, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository and online retailers. You can order hard and paperback copies at https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/slaver’s-tide

 

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