Book Reviews

Praise for The Slave Trader: The Story of Bryan Blundell.

Ben Shaw writes with a verve that captures the energy of the growing port and its people. … Ben Shaw deserves commendation for this work … His meticulous attention to research detail and referencing have made a huge contribution to expunging the silence on the slave-trade that once pervaded. Dr Mervyn Rowlinson, review for the Liverpool Maritime Society (read the full review, PDF)

This thoroughly researched narrative of eighteenth-century mercantile Liverpool and its dominance in transatlantic trade highlights the entanglement of philanthropy, religion, finance and the barbarity of the slave trade. It is made more convincing, its contradictions starker, by drawing on one man’s own written account of the period. Bryan Biggs, Director of Cultural Legacies at the Bluecoat, Liverpool

An amazing book, beautifully written. Bill Lindsay, author, and editor of Topmasts, the online magazine of the Society for Nautical Research

An immensely readable book that brings Bryan Blundell’s world vividly to life. Bill Ogle, Liverpool Maritime Society

Reviewers and reading groups are very welcome to get in touch. For review copies please contact Pen & Sword History, or message the author directly.