Act of Oblivion: The Thrilling new novel from the no. 1 bestseller Robert Harris

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Robert Harris is one of my favourite authors, so a new book by him is always something to look forward to. This one sounded particularly interesting, dealing with a manhunt that takes place in 17th century New England, a setting Harris has never written about before. 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 has appeared on the BBC satirical panel game Have I Got News for You in episode three of the first series in 1990, and in episode four of the second series a year later. In the first he appeared as a last-minute replacement for the politician Roy Hattersley. On 12 October 2007, he made a third appearance on the programme, 17 years, to the day, after his first appearance. Since the gap between his second and third appearance was nearly 16 years, Harris enjoyed the distinction of the longest gap between two successive appearances in the show's history until Eddie Izzard appeared on 22 April 2016, [24] just under 20 years after his last appearance on Episode 5 of Series 11 (17 May 1996).

Lattanzio, Ryan (28 February 2020). "César Awards 2020: 'Les Misérables' Wins Best Film, No-Show Roman Polanski Takes Best Director". IndieWire . Retrieved 29 February 2020. August 1660 Lords reminded of Bills, British History On-line House of Commons Journal Volume 8 (www.british-history.ac.uk) The Second Sleep, published on 5 September 2019, [13] [14] is set in the small English village of Addicott St. George in Wessex in the year 1468 (but it is not "our" 1468; it's 800 years later than the 2020s) and follows the events of a priest, Christopher Fairfax, sent there to bury the previous priest, and the secrets he discovers: about the priest, the village, and the society in which they live. [ citation needed] V2 (2020) [ edit ]

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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 ] The Indemnity and Oblivion Act fulfilled the suggestion given in the Declaration of Breda that reprisals against the establishment which had developed during the English Interregnum would be restricted to those who had officiated in the regicide of King Charles I. But the over-rating here! This is a favorite author for sure, mine too- but length, breadth, and continuity here? Way below par for Robert Harris. Below par for the complexity and length of copy too. My bar is high for the author of Munich, for all of those top notch Roman series based books etc. This one does not begin to rise to the midst of their quality. 2.5 stars and I cannot round it up.

Harris appeared on the American PBS show Charlie Rose on 10 February 2012. Harris discussed his novel The Fear Index which he likened to a modern-day Gothic novel along the lines of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Harris also discussed the adaptation of his novel, The Ghost that came out as the movie, The Ghost Writer directed by Roman Polanski. [25] Columnist [ edit ]

Book Summary

Harris's bestselling first novel, the alternative-history Fatherland, has as its setting a world where Nazi Germany won the Second World War. Publication enabled Harris to become a full-time novelist. It was adapted as a television film by HBO in 1994. [ citation needed] 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 was inspired to write his novel An Officer and a Spy by Polanski's longtime interest in the Dreyfus affair. [20] He also wrote a screenplay based on the story, which Polanski was to direct in 2012. [21] The screenplay was first titled D, after the initial written on the secret file that secured Dreyfus' conviction. After many years of production difficulties, it started filming in 2018, starring Jean Dujardin. It was produced by Alain Goldman and distributed by Gaumont in 2019. [22] He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, 'They killed the King.'

XLVI. Bonds taken in his Majesty's name before May 1642 for securities of any his Majesty's receivers, not pardoned. &c. Cromwell said, 'We will cut off the King's head with the crown upon it'. In other words, they were not just killing the man, they were killing the whole institution," he says. Edemariam, Aida (27 September 2007). "Aida Edemariam talks to author Robert Harris". The Guardian. London.

We're always on the side of people on the run no matter what they have done, like Bonnie and Clyde, so I knew readers would want Whalley and Goffe to get away.They were naturals to write about, especially because Whalley was Cromwell's cousin and was at his side during the Civil War. But their flight gave me a way of writing not only about the English Civil War but also about the beginnings of America. I could kill a great many birds with this one stone. America in the 1660s was sparsely settled. Two men on the run are housed initially by the Puritans (who sympathized with the anti-monarchists) but must flee when Nayler arrives in America to pursue them. The tale involves maritime travel from London to Massachusetts to the rugged terrain of the Connecticut wilderness. Harris hinted at a third, far less obvious, allusion hidden in the novel's title, and, more significantly, at a possible motive for having written the book in the first place. Blair, he said, had himself been ghostwriter, in effect, to President Bush when giving public reasons for invading Iraq: he had argued the case better than had the President himself. [8] Good and Faithful Servant: The Unauthorized Biography of Bernard Ingham. London: Faber and Faber, December 1990 ISBN 978-0-571-16108-9 Even the body of Cromwell himself, who had died two years earlier, was dug up, posthumously "executed" and displayed. One man, Major-General Thomas Harrison, the first regicide to be executed, reputedly punched his executioner while he was being disembowelled.

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. Fact and fiction are knitted together so deftly, it's hard to see the joins. The fictional Nayler, who keeps a scrap of handkerchief with drops of Charles I's dried blood as a relic of the martyred king, blames the fugitives for the death of his pregnant wife and unborn child. 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 other The problem is that this is the majority of the novel because there isn’t a great deal to the story itself. It takes an age for Nayler to get across the pond to the colonies and even longer for anything further to happen. And then nothing really happens after that until the cheesy Hollywood-esque ending.

Reader Reviews

IX. The penalty of any officer, &c. that shall go about to disquiet or trouble any person pardoned by this act. July 1660 Pardon and Oblivion, British History On-line House of Commons Journal Volume 8 (www.british-history.ac.uk) A sweeping historical adventure set during one of the most turbulent periods of British history--featuring a heroine you'll never forget... A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of Gas and Germ Warfare (with Jeremy Paxman). London: Chatto & Windus, March 1982 ISBN 978-0-7011-2585-1 Like in An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris has taken a little known historical episode and written a lengthy novel about it - and, like that other novel, Act of Oblivion is unfortunately really boring.