The Brothers by Robert Derry

Book Blurb
“When I entered the city, I entered it with an undaunted spirit, determined that no labour should make me shrink, no danger nor even persecution deter me from my pursuit.”

Thomas Clarkson was the ‘moral steam engine’ behind the abolitionist movement of the late eighteenth century, without whom The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade would have been bereft of its champion. The Brothers tells the story of the early years of their struggle and the tale of a slave ship, The Brothers, as it departs from the port of Bristol en route to the Guinea Coast, under the vicious Captain Howlett. It traces the arduous journey of Clarkson, as he gathers evidence against The Trade from the slaving ports of England and the political efforts of Granville Sharp who, with the help of the Society, brings their first bill before a reluctant parliament. A disillusioned Doctor Gardiner, the ship’s surgeon aboard The Brothers, agrees to keep a journal as evidence for the investigation, to record first-hand in all its horrors the maltreatment of slaves and crew at the hands of the sadistic officers, for whom the venture is all about one thing and one thing alone – profit. A young boy escapes from the clutches of the Bristol mob to find himself in service in Sharp’s plush London residence, as four thousand miles away in the Caribbean, The Brothers sails away from its crime against humanity. But another force is rising from the very timbers of the ship’s blood-infused frame – a nightmare that will push the troubled doctor to the very edge of insanity and threaten to bring a timely judgement upon them all.

My Review
Again, I was supposed to be on the blog tour for The Brothers in April, but after the loss of my father I was unable to continue with my committments. I would like to thank Robert Derry and Anne Cater for being so patient. So, back to the book, The Brothers is the story of the slave trade, and focuses on the long road to abolition. Told through the eyes of campaigner Reverend Thomas Clarkson, who fought to bring legislation into law and the fictional Doctor Gardiner’s diary from his time on the slaver ship The Brothers. Their stories highlight the shocking world of slavery simply known as The Trade.

When I was doing my degree I studied art influenced by the slavce trade and how MP Wilbur Wilberforce made it his life work to end this dispicale trade. In this I had touched on the character of Reverand Thomas Clarkson, but in The Brothers I was fascinated to learn the he was the main protagonist, and took the evidence to Wilberforce. Clarkson’s dedication to the cause shines through in Robert Derry’s writing, he travelled to every port gaining evience of the horrific way the slaves and the crew on the ships were treated, and in the process it nearly cost him his life. The other voice in this is the fictional voice of Doctor Gardiner who was collating evidence in the form of a diary for Clarckson’s cause. His experiences, trying to be a better person than the power hungry and corrupt Captain, show the difficulty of being part of the crew and unable to help the slaves. Whilst this is a fictional account the treatment of the salves and crew described is based on fact.

Robert Derry has obviously done a lot of research into the slave trade, his atention to detail is simply amazing. He follows the story from the beginnings to the abolition cause all the way through to when it was finally abolished by parliament over fifty years later. Whilst there is a lot of information in this book, even if it is a piece of fiction, Derry’s writing makes it easy to read and follow. There are definitly parts of The Brothers that make for difficult reading, the abuse, torture and violence used on the slaves and the crew is abhorrent, but I think it is important to remember and understand what happened in that period in our history and to learn from it. I loved the balance of the abolitionist work and history with the more personal account from Doctor Gardiner who was experiencing it first hand.

It’s strange to say I enjoyed a book about the slave trade but The Brothers was a brilliant read, one of the best fictional books I have read on this subject. The prose flowed with ease and Robert Derry combined fact and fiction seamlessly making this an astonishing and compelling read, and one that will definitley stay with me.