It is the spring of 1767, two years after the events of Barry Unsworths Booker Prize-winning novelSacred Hunger. Erasmus Kemp, the son of a Liverpool slave ship owner, has had the rebellious sailors of his fathers ship brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy. However, Sullivan, the Irish fiddler, has escaped and is making his way on foot to the north of England, stealing and scamming as he goes.

In London, Kemp is looking to invest some of his fortune on Britains new industries: coal-mining and steel. When he receives a tip about some mines for sale in East Durham, Kemp sees the business opportunity he has been waiting for, and he too makes his way north, to the very same village that Sullivan is heading for

Barry Unsworth was born in 1930 in Durham. He was the author of many novels, includingPascalis Island, which was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize;Stone Virgin(1985);Sacred Hunger, which was joint winner of the 1992 Booker Prize;Morality Play, which was shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize;Losing Nelson(1999);The Songs of the King(2002);The Ruby in Her Navel(2006);Land of Marvels(2009); andThe Quality of Mercy(2011), which was shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Barry Unsworth died in 2012.