Rough Crossings By Simon Schama

As revolution brewed in America, many thousands of slaves acted on British offers of freedom to desert, and fight, their rebel masters. Schama follows these "black loyalists" with a thrilling grasp of high drama and fine detail. He yokes their troubling fate to the wider anti-slavery movement and traces the heroic journey many made first to Canada, then Sierra Leone. A myth-puncturing view of the birth of the US - and a showcase for Schama's narrative gifts at their bewitching best.