Mr Atkinson’s Rum Contract: The Story of a Tangled Inheritance
Shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021
‘Rarely has family history been so vivid’ JENNY UGLOW
‘An extraordinarily original work’ AMANDA FOREMAN
Like many well-to-do Georgian families, the Atkinsons’ wealth was acquired at a terrible cost, through the labour and lives of enslaved Africans. Drawing on his ancestors’ private correspondence, Richard Atkinson pieces together their unsettling story, from the weather-beaten house in Cumbria where they once lived to the ruins of their sugar estates in Jamaica. This extraordinarily original work of detective biography is also a uniquely personal account of one of the most disturbing chapters in Britain’s colonial past.
”'Fascinating… Not only a minute examination of a family’s rise and fall, but a ringside view of the Caribbean slave trade and an impeccable guide to the legal and financial world of the Enlightenment… This is an epic tale, but it is moreover an epic piece of research… My guess is that many readers will now find themselves inspired to unlock their own time capsules and slip into another century” - Frances Wilson, Guardian
”'A towering achievement, founded on painstaking research, written with elegance and elan, salted with humour and shot-through with intelligent warmth and compassion” - Monica Ali
”'Enthralling… Full of drama, surprises, twists and turns. There are wars, sudden bankruptcies, doomed love affairs, tragic early deaths and bitter family feuds, all involving a cast of Atkinsons brilliantly brought to life… The surprises continue until the very last page” - Matthew Parker, Literary Review
”'An engaging tour de force of genealogical research… This fascinating personal family story is also the story of a colonial English past of which none of us should be proud, but of which all of us should be aware” - Brian Viner, Daily Mail
”'Remarkable… A three-dimensional portrait, not just of Richard Atkinson MP but his world - nefarious, buccaneering, amoral, but also containing a genuine love story… Family history can become an obsession and often a bore. But in this case it has produced gold. Love, adventure, skulduggery, moral outrage - what a story” - Clive Aslet, The Spectator
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