This was a very turbulent time in history, dominated as it was by religion and politics, vile atrocities on both sides, and Harris’s research brings it very much to life. This is a master storyteller at work. An exceptional, exciting, and suspenseful chase, a magnificent piece of historical fiction, very difficult to put down, and in my humble opinion, an absolute must read. Appointing himself as hunter, Nayler sets his sights on Edward Whalley and William Goffe, going to whatever lengths necessary to see them both on the scaffold.

But now, ten years after Charles’ beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the fifty-nine men who signed the king’s death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn, and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat. Part of the novel is written from the perspective of Nayler and part from the points of view of Ned Whalley and Will Goffe. This means that the reader knows from the beginning exactly where Ned and Will have gone – they have crossed the Atlantic to America, to build new lives for themselves in the like-minded Puritan colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. When Nayler arrives in pursuit, however, the two regicides are forced to move from one hiding place to another, never able to relax, knowing that they could be betrayed by anyone at any time. One of the challenges of writing about this period is that the intricacies of religious faith and faction can seem distant and abstruse to a modern audience. Goffe is a religious man – he had wanted to become a minister before the war intervened – but Harris doesn’t allow himself to become hung up on the niceties of Christian doctrine. Rather, he makes a broader point about the position of the colonels in New England: the simplicity of their faith and anti-monarchical feeling finds a natural home among the dissenters and Puritans of the New World. The impulses that would animate the revolution a hundred years hence were all there in the English civil war. This does not, alas, mean that the men have an easy time of it in Massachusetts. From the bestselling author of Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, Munich, and Conclave comes this spellbinding historical novel that brilliant imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail—an epic journey into the wilds of seventeeth-century New England, and a chase like no otherVI. The like by reason of any Commission by the late or present King, or by Colour of any Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament, or the late Protector, &c. Whalley begins as a pious and ruthless military commander. He’s a religious fanatic obsessed, as all Puritans in the novel are, with the idea of a Christian republic of England – a land where God rules supreme. This book is a sweeping saga set in the 1600s about the hunt for two (real) men, William Goffe and Edward Whalley, who signed the death warrant of Charles I, and their life in hiding in America. Richard Nayler is the fictional hunter of the “regicides.” The hunt begins in 1660 upon restoration of Charles II, son of Charles I, to the throne of England after the ousting and death of Oliver Cromwell. The titular Act of Oblivion pardoned the past treasons committed against the Crown, with the exception of the regicides. The two fugitives are related by marriage – Whalley is the father-in-law of Goffe. Whalley is also cousin to Oliver Cromwell. The families are the two men also feature in the narrative. Act Of Oblivion offers a resonant history of both England and America as they struggle to forge a myth of nationhood out of opposing ideologies * Daily Mail *

Applied to Acts of Oblivion, the “burning” Act of Oblivion has disappeared in the Anglo-American tradition—we do not expect a federal or state legislature to interfere with our collective memory in this way. Yet the “drowning” Act of Oblivion should give us present pause. As I have briefly offered here, executive gaslighting occurs frequently, and can present a deeper threat because it is more subtle. It will take the stolid mantra-like repetition of the truth—as in Robinson’s article—to overcome the government’s unleashing of the waters of Lethe. Charles II, 1660: An Act of Free and Generall Pardon Indemnity and Oblivion., Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628–80 (1819), pp. 226–34. British History Online, Date. Retrieved 27 February 2007. He has taken a truly extraordinary factual tale and turned it into a fun fictional version, with pace throughout, and a crowd-pleasing finale * The Oldie * Whalley is the only reflective character, confronting the possibility (in the memoir, though not to others) that perhaps God had not been on the side of the Parliamentarians. Goffe and Nayler remain rigid in their views to the end, starkly representing the opposing sides. An Irish act by the same name "An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion [for Ireland]" was sent to the Duke of Ormonde on 16 August 1664 by Sir Paul Davys, the Irish Secretary of State. [23] In popular culture [ edit ]Harris displays an impressive grasp of the historical context without taxing his readers by showing his 'workings'. * Church Times *

The passage of the Indemnity and Oblivion Act through the Convention Parliament was secured by Lord Clarendon, the first minister of King Charles II, and it became law on 29 August 1660 during the first year of the English Restoration. At no point, however, does Harris bore with the history. Although this novel is as informative as any documentary, it is just that; a novel. The character development is second to none, as shown in the change of heart from Cromwell’s cousin, Edward Whalley. But now, ten years after Charles' beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the fifty-nine men who signed the king's death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn, and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat. Harris certainly seems to have done his research and he brings the time period to life convincingly enough with lots of detail. You know how sometimes people say they learn more about history through reading historical novels than actual history books? I can see people saying that about Harris’ historical novels like this one.Bernadette Meyler’s Theaters of Pardoning 1 Open this footnote Close this footnote 1 Bernadette Meyler , Theaters of Pardoning (2019). … Open this footnote Close offers a profound and provocative meditation on the relationship between forgiveness and the state. In this comment, I follow her methodological and substantive lead by taking literary and legal approaches to a curious form of pardoning she discusses in her work—the “Act of Oblivion.” The Act of Oblivion operated as a super-pardon: It was “a form of general amnesty erasing the record of the underlying events rather than simply remitting punishment.” 2 Open this footnote Close this footnote 2 Id. at 29. … Open this footnote Close Pardon is to oblivion as forgiving is to forgetting. Harris's cleverness, judgment and eye for detail are second to none -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * I seriously enjoyed listening to this book. My only negative comment is that it was perhaps a little too long, as I did find my interest and attention wane during the mid stages of the narration. A few days of listening to several other, less note-worthy titles, ensued and I was ready to resume listening to Act of Oblivion to the end. X. Exceptions out of this pardon. All murders not comprised in the first clause of this pardon excepted. Piracy excepted. Buggery. Rape and the wilful taking away any maid excepted. Double marriages excepted Witchcraft excepted I. Jac. I. C. II. Accounts of certain treasures and receivers. 13 Car. 2. Stat. I. C. 3. Harris, deft as ever, weaves a hefty amount of historical fact into the narrative, politics, religion, colonial life, family ties - as well as themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Underneath it all though is the remorseless and building propulsion of hunter and prey * New Statesman *