Notwithstanding her terrible affliction, she was one of the brightest and happiest of women, and lived to the age of seventy-three. His brother John describes the father as being one of the most handsome men he has ever seen, and both sons 'worshipped him, for his beautiful life fell in no wise short of his beautiful face, and we never heard from him a shady or ungracious word.' The mother also was handsome and a charming woman but at the early age of thirty-nine she lost her sight, and remained blind all her life. Joseph Knight was born on the 24th of May, 1829, at Leeds, where his father was in business as a cloth merchant. It is a moving narrative of history, identity and ideas, that dramatically retells a fascinating but forgotten episode of Scottish history.His father and mother. James Robertson's second novel is a tour de force, the gripping story of a search for a life that stretches over sixty years and moves from battlefields to the plantations of Jamaica, from Enlightenment Edinburgh to the back streets of Dundee. How can he possibly find a man who does not want to be found? Yet what will he do if Jamieson's search is successful? And what effect will this re-opening of old wounds have on those around him? Meanwhile, as Jamieson tries to unravel the true story of Joseph Knight he begins to question his own motivation. The past has haunted Wedderburn ever since Culloden, and ever since he last saw Knight, in court twenty-four years ago, in a case that went to the heart of Scottish society, pitting master against slave, white against black, and rich against poor.Īs long as Knight is missing, Wedderburn will never be able to escape the past. Now, in 1802, Sir John Wedderburn is settling his estate, and has hired a solicitor's agent, Archibald Jamieson, to search for his former slave. He brought with him Joseph Knight, a black slave and a token of his years in the Caribbean. In the 1770s, he returned to Scotland to marry and re-establish the family name. JOSEPH KNIGHT confirms James Robertson as one of our foremost novelists.Įxiled to Jamaica after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Sir John Wedderburn made a fortune, alongside his three brothers, as a faux surgeon and sugar planter. ‘A book of such quality as to persuade you that historical novels are the true business of the writer.’Ī gripping, shocking story of history, enlightement and slavery from the bestselling author of THE FANATIC.

Joseph knight novel