We all know the history of the Mayflower and the band of persecuted Puritan settlers leaving England to start a colony in the New World which will allow them religious freedom. It's a story I thought I knew, an area I am interested in as I have a distant relation who was among the settlers in the first few ships, but there was so much in this book that I was not aware of.

Historical fiction can be a difficult balance between being honest about the facts but also bringing them to life and this book managed to do it very well. The explanation of the religious situation in England under James, how the group wanted to practice their religion, and the journey that took them to America was handled really deftly - it was never heavy or dull but managed to set it all out for me. I had not realised that they had first lived in the Netherlands, that the first intention had not been to travel on the Mayflower and just how difficult it was for them to get out of England and start anew somewhere else. The main characters are fictional but others are often largely based on real people which makes it all the more interesting, and the dialogue feels true to the time and never stilted. The difficulty of the journey, the fear and hardships faced in settling the new land, the help of the Native Americans (and I was glad to see familiar names cropping up there) and the varying attitudes of the settlers to their new religion and the Native Americans were all very well handled and I was genuinely interested in what would happen to them all.

I had not read any of the author's work before but I'm pleased to see how many different historical events he's covered and I'll be looking out for more, especially the first two books in this series.

Thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
#WestwardToFreedom #NetGalley