Book Reviews

Show reviews here


Cerys Matthews BBC 6 Music

‘An elegant, vital insight into human suffering and survival.’


Songlines Magazine


School Librarian


Living Tradition Magazine


Folking.com


Morning Star


FATEA


All About Jazz


Camden New Journal


Read extracts from the book

These open in PDF


SPIRITED AWAY

An eight year old boy is kidnapped on the quayside in 18th century Aberdeen - and sold into servitude in the Carolinas in Colonial America.


BLACKBIRDING

After the African slave trade was abolished, many slavers simply transferred their business model to the south western Pacific.


TRAFFICKED

In 1904 a young Japanese woman called Minami Haru was trafficked to Singapore as a sex slave. In 1998 a young Albanian woman, Maria, was similarly trafficked into Italy. Their stories are similar.


THE UNION ARMY RECRUITS IN IRELAND

During the American Civil War, the northern states sent recruiting agents to Ireland, offering free passage to a new life in the US - in return for a little fighting. The story’s told in the song By the Hush / Paddy’s Lamentation.