Edward writes wonderfully and I love his self deprecation and humour ( "I lost my temper once, and never found it again"), and some of his views seem to be quite advanced for the time. Very interesting leads when he talks about his family though. James himself apparently sent on a colonising expedition to South America at age 14, and his own father a plantation owner in Jamaica, who freed his own slaves without compensation before he needed to, and suffered huge financial loss as a consequence. I need to track down that thread but you can't help wondering whether that played a part in James' politics over abolition. Great book.
Some wonderful leads from the book I bought, and Edward Spence ( James' son) I like a lot. The family seem to have been masters of many trades, and Edward himself was a judge, Edwardian theatre critic, even an occasional composer, which tracking down brother Hubert, he seems to have been a fairly successful neurologist in Ohio.
Edward writes wonderfully and I love his self deprecation and humour ( "I lost my temper once, and never found it again"), and some of his views seem to be quite advanced for the time. Very interesting leads when he talks about his family though. James himself apparently sent on a colonising expedition to South America at age 14, and his own father a plantation owner in Jamaica, who freed his own slaves without compensation before he needed to, and suffered huge financial loss as a consequence. I need to track down that thread but you can't help wondering whether that played a part in James' politics over abolition. Great book.
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