UK Release: Thomas Clarkson: The Giant with one Idea

Well this is EXCITING. Today (May 7) is the UK release date for my very first book: Thomas Clarkson: The Giant with One Idea with Christian Focus Publishing.

For those in the UK or elsewhere, Thomas Clarkson: The Giant with One Idea should be available now (or soon!) at the usual suspects, including Amazon.

For those in Australia I’m planning to have a launch party when it arrives here, so stay tuned!

Later on this month I’ll be sharing a post titled: Thomas Clarkson – Box of Goodies, so to stay in the loop, sign up below.

I’d love to meet you on instagram where I review what I’ve been reading, as well as writing updates! I’m also on goodreads (as a reader AND author!), and facebook.

AND now, without further ado, I’d love to share with you an excerpt from Thomas Clarkson: The Giant with One Idea – the only biography of Clarkson in-print:

“…Thomas knew of no one who was as sickened by the slave trade as he was. But what could he do? He had no ability to change the laws of the country; he had no great wealth or influence. He was so young – it would be crazy to believe he could destroy the horrific trade.

Yet, Thomas slowly realised, there was one thing he could do. He could translate his essay into English and publish it. He could make the truth known.

‘I’m glad you’re doing this, Tom,’ John said, sitting back in his chair in their family house at Wisbech that winter. The table in front of them was spread with papers scrawled over with Thomas’ neat handwriting and John’s rather less-practised hand. For once Thomas’ brother found nothing to joke about in the sobering information he was helping to translate.

‘This is awful. I still can’t believe that the captain of the ship Zhong threw 130 living Africans overboard in order to claim insurance. It’s even more disgusting that the court ruled he was innocent of murder because Africans have no more worth in the eyes of the law than horses!’

‘How can people who call themselves Christians do such things?’ asked Thomas, firing up immediately. None of his passion over the injustices of the slave trade had left him. ‘It’s not right…’

John waited until his brother was finished, and then bit the feathery end of his pen. ‘We’ve finished half your essay, Tom, and it’s already come to sixty pages. Do you think it might be time to find a publisher?’

In January 1786 Thomas traveled once more to London. Navigating down the cobbled streets of Westminster, around gentlemen and ladies out for a stroll and sellers hawking various products, he made his way to the Strand. The busy thoroughfare was lined with printers and bookshops, but Thomas soon located the door of a well-known publisher.

‘Of course we can publish it,’ Mr. Cadell said. He beamed at Thomas. ‘It won first prize and so I will be able to sell it to many respectable people.’

Respectable? ‘No, thank you,’ Thomas decided. ‘I don’t wish it to be read only by respectable people, but by useful people, people who will be moved by what I have written and want to do something about it.’

Disheartened but resolute, Thomas decided to visit an acquaintance while he was in Town. On his way there, he bumped into a family friend…”

Emily J. Maurits