Dimensions
152 x 233 x 26mm
The brilliant prequel to 'Jack Absolute' . . .
It's London, 1759. A bright scholar and brilliant sportsman at Westminster school, Jack is drawn into the debauchery of London life, in the taverns and billiard halls of Covent Garden, in the boudoir of a lady educating him in the ways of love. Unfortunately, the lady is also mistress to one of the most powerful men in the land, Lord Melbury, and when Jack's father is forced to fight a duel on his son's behalf and kills Melbury - with Jack himself fighting his nemesis cousin, Craster - the only escape is the army, currently fighting the French in the Seven Years War.
The naive Ensign Jack arrives in Canada just in time to take part in the legendary battles of Quebec. Taken prisoner at battle's end by the Abenaki Indians, he is enslaved by them, finally escaping with a fellow slave, a young Mohawk he's always hated: ATE. The two youths are drawn together by the necessities of survival in a brutal winter world and by a copy of Hamlet, Jack's last possession from London. Jack goes native. He then uses that disguise to infiltrate the French army at Montreal and take news of their planned assault on the weakened British at Quebec. Jack survives a second battle there and, somewhat reluctantly, returns to England at the end of the campaign, having started to become all we know him to be from Jack Absolute - an officer, a Mohawk, a lover and a spy.
