NATHANIEL’S NUTMEG
By Giles Milton 

Penguin USA   - July 2000
ISBN: 0140292608 - Paperback
Nonfiction / History


Reviewed by: Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.Com
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The island of Run is a mere dot on the map and lies due north of Australia.  Today it is all but forgotten but it once was the stage for an extraordinary drama over what seems an ordinary item – nutmeg.  In the early 17th century any island that yielded spices was a Treasure Island indeed, for spices were believed to cure ills and added a fillip to dull meals.  But nutmeg was thought to do more than this – people believed it would cure the plague and this sent the price rocketing.  Into this forum came one Nathaniel Courthorpe who worked for the East India Company and who sailed first under Sir Henry Middleton and then commanded ships himself, all with the aim of winning for the Company such islands.  He was fated to have many adventures involving cannibals, cruel despots and the then enemies of the English the Dutch who wanted the islands for themselves.  He had to raise native troops to help him and endure horrible tortures and many privations all in order to gain this valuable asset.  Now read on! 

When people think of historical non-fiction stirring tales of adventures and derring-do do not spring to mind.  But this book is anything but dusty and deserves its rave reviews.  If you enjoyed Wilbur Smith’s recent Courtney tales and loved Trasure Island as a child (and adult) then you will enjoy this.  It is a highly readable page-turner which is not something all novels manage but this is particularly rare in a work of non-fiction.  It brought to life the struggles and hardships of a vanished age and I kept thinking that all is needed now is somebody to turn the story into a novel or a film.  But perhaps that isn’t necessary; this book is exciting enough and without the added devices of fiction it is all true as well.

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