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The Unfortunate Colonel Despard, 9781472144072
Paperback
Hero or traitor? One man’s fate echoes through revolution’s dawn.

The Unfortunate Colonel Despard

and the british revolution that never happened

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$39.92

  • Paperback

    304 pages

  • Release Date

    31 July 2019

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Summary

This is the true story of Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, the character in the fifth series of the BBC’s popular television drama Poldark.

Colonel Despard was the last person to be sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering in Britain - for high treason, an alleged plot to kill the king. His execution on 21st February 1803 was witnessed by twenty thousand hushed onlookers. Their silence was ominous, for few believed he was guilty. His death would tear apart …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781472144072
ISBN-10:1472144074
Author:Mike Jay
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Imprint:Robinson
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:304
Release Date:31 July 2019
Weight:240g
Dimensions:198mm x 126mm x 26mm
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What They're Saying

Critics Review

A gem of a book … was Despard a hero or villain? In answering this question, Jay has also produced a powerful and energetic study of the political complexity of the 1790s. - Sunday Telegraph

Compelling, absorbing and wide-ranging … Jay weaves a complex variety of themes, many with overtly topical resonances, into Despard’s journey from hero to traitor. - Sunday Times

A riveting account of the life and times of Britain’s first terrorist. - Independent on Sunday Books of the Year

Beautifully crafted … as thrilling as any novel. The Colonel’s fast-paced adventures are matched by Jay’s equally breathless narrative. - Good Book Guide

About The Author

Mike Jay

MIKE JAY is the author of The Air Loom Gang, Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century, Blue Tide: The Search for Soma and Artificial Paradise: A Drugs Reader, and editor of 1900: A Fin-de-Siecle Reader. Mike’s latest book, which will be published in May by Yale, is a global history of mescaline.

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