Book description
In 1611 an astonishing letter arrived at the the East India Trading
Company in London after a tortuous seven-year journey. Englishman
William Adams was one of only twenty-four survivors of a fleet of
ships bound for Asia, and he had washed up in the forbidden land of Japan.
The traders were even more amazed to learn that, rather than be
horrified by this strange country, Adams had fallen in love with the
barbaric splendour of Japan - and decided to settle. He had forged a
close friendship with the ruthless Shogun, taken a Japanese wife and
sired a new, mixed-race family.
Adams' letter fired up the London merchants to plan a new expedition
to the Far East, with designs to trade with the Japanese and use
Adams' contacts there to forge new commercial links.
Samurai William brilliantly illuminates a world whose horizons
were rapidly expanding eastwards.
'A page-turner of a book... an accessible, well-crafted piece of
popularised history.' Giles Milton is a writer and historian. He is
the bestselling author of
Nathaniel's Nutmeg
,
Big Chief Elizabeth
,
The Riddle and the Knight
,
White Gold
,
Samurai William
,
Paradise Lost
and, most recently,
Wolfram
. He has also written two novels and two children's books, one of them
illustrated by his wife Alexandra. He lives in South London.
