Lawrence Hill

I have just finished reading The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. He is a very accomplished writer and easy to read at the same time.

Lawrence Hill's novel is inspired by a fascinating but little known historical document called the Book of Negroes, copies of which can be found in the USA at the New York Public Library, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) and the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. In Canada, copies of the same historical document can be found in the Nova Scotia Public Archives and in the National Archives of Canada. Lawrence Hill wrote a feature article called "Freedom Bound" about the historical document The Book of Negroes in the February/March 2007 edition of The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine.

I look forward to reading some of his other books, which I hear are very funny and touching. There is an hilarious excerpt here on being black and white in Toronto and going to an Italian barber! I hope to read this one soon.

The Book of Negroes sticks close to historical fact and comes with an excellent bibiography. His books are highly informative and have a warm human tone to them. Considering the subject matter this may seem hard to achieve, but I think Hill has found just the right balance.