I returned recently to this James Jackson historical adventure after setting it aside many months before.
I had been weary of revisiting in the narrative form the ferocious visage presented by the televised rendition of Jamestown's bloody frontier life.
How mistaken had I been.
It was in fact a tour de matrie, a robust, muscular tapestry of the violent, turbulent birthing of a nation.
It was the cradle for God Bless America.
Yet it is also written that Jamestown was where the British Empire began.
Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 it served as the capital of the colony of Virginia for 83 years.
As a settlement it had indeed had a violent, turbulent beginning and television viewers were given an insight into this in the BBC drama series of the same name.
Now James Jackson gives us deeper insight into the fears and the fortitude and the hard labour demanded by the harsh task of carving out a viable colony
The early chapters tantalise with the intrigue of the royal courts of England and Spain, of the super-spy -cum - warrior named as an "Intelligencer" Christian Hardy.
His future confrontation with other mystical force named Realm lead into a crisp, well-researched storyline that mixed the romantic with stoic realism.
Of great interest to this reviewer was the back story of Pocahontas and John Smith
Pocahontas was the Powhatan Native American woman, born around 1595, known for her involvement with the English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
In a well-known historical anecdote, she saved the life of John Smith, courageous adventurer and President of the expanding colony, by placing her head upon his own at the moment of his execution.
Pocahontas later married a colonist, changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe and died while visiting England in 1617.
Smith’s 1616 account describes the dramatic act of selflessness which would become legendary: "... at the minute of my execution", he wrote, "she [Pocahontas] hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown." Smith further embellished this story in his Generall Historie, written years later.
But it is with Jackson's rich storytelling that we in the 21st century are now subsumed into this American past.
And Cradle delivers with a subtle sub plot of internicine conflict in the courts of England and Spain and the mind games and strategic jousting beween the renegade Realm and spy - cum - warrior Christian Hardy.
All this along the banks and nearby forests of the indigenous "redskin" warriors of Chesapeake Bay.
Fictionalised history at its peak.
I had been weary of revisiting in the narrative form the ferocious visage presented by the televised rendition of Jamestown's bloody frontier life.
How mistaken had I been.
It was in fact a tour de matrie, a robust, muscular tapestry of the violent, turbulent birthing of a nation.
It was the cradle for God Bless America.
Yet it is also written that Jamestown was where the British Empire began.
Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 it served as the capital of the colony of Virginia for 83 years.
As a settlement it had indeed had a violent, turbulent beginning and television viewers were given an insight into this in the BBC drama series of the same name.
Now James Jackson gives us deeper insight into the fears and the fortitude and the hard labour demanded by the harsh task of carving out a viable colony
The early chapters tantalise with the intrigue of the royal courts of England and Spain, of the super-spy -cum - warrior named as an "Intelligencer" Christian Hardy.
His future confrontation with other mystical force named Realm lead into a crisp, well-researched storyline that mixed the romantic with stoic realism.
Of great interest to this reviewer was the back story of Pocahontas and John Smith
Pocahontas was the Powhatan Native American woman, born around 1595, known for her involvement with the English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
In a well-known historical anecdote, she saved the life of John Smith, courageous adventurer and President of the expanding colony, by placing her head upon his own at the moment of his execution.
Pocahontas later married a colonist, changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe and died while visiting England in 1617.
Smith’s 1616 account describes the dramatic act of selflessness which would become legendary: "... at the minute of my execution", he wrote, "she [Pocahontas] hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown." Smith further embellished this story in his Generall Historie, written years later.
But it is with Jackson's rich storytelling that we in the 21st century are now subsumed into this American past.
And Cradle delivers with a subtle sub plot of internicine conflict in the courts of England and Spain and the mind games and strategic jousting beween the renegade Realm and spy - cum - warrior Christian Hardy.
All this along the banks and nearby forests of the indigenous "redskin" warriors of Chesapeake Bay.
Fictionalised history at its peak.