A LOCAL author’s book on the life and works of Sir Walter Raleigh has received a glowing endorsement from Bergerac actor and Jersey history enthusiast John Nettles.
Donald Brown’s study of the courtier and author – who was also the last Governor of Jersey in the reign of Elizabeth I – has just been published in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon. It is described by Mr Nettles as ‘an exhilarating read’.
‘There are a goodly number of books on Raleigh – very few as good as this,’ he comments in an online review.
For Mr Brown, it was the happy conclusion to a relationship which began when Mr Nettles was researching a BBC television programme on Raleigh and sought his advice. ‘He came over and had heard that I was doing a lot of studying of Raleigh, and he asked for some help. He was very polite and we arranged to meet for several hours during which he asked a lot of questions and I gave him a couple of books to read,’ Mr Brown said.
Later, when it occurred to Mr Brown to tell John Nettles about the publication of his own book on Raleigh – The Broken Monuments of my Great Desires – the outcome was entirely positive. ‘He replied immediately and said he would go out and buy a copy and would give it a write-up,’ Mr Brown said.
Walter Raleigh has been a figure of academic interest since Mr Brown read English at Exeter College Oxford. In recent years, researching the book, he has given public talks on Raleigh at the Library consolidating the Jersey link through Raleigh’s governorship from 1600 to 1603.
Raleigh actually spent very little time in the Island although the connection with Jersey was mentioned at the courtier’s trial and, Mr Brown explained, he also helped engineer a marriage between a woman who had borne his illegitimate child and the Seigneur of Samarès. But his most important legacy as Governor was probably in ensuring that Mont Orgueil was not demolished as obsolete, and in naming its replacement in St Aubin’s Bay after the Queen.
Mr Brown’s two-part book deals with Raleigh’s life but also with the canon of his poetic works, some of which have been disputed by scholars. By close analysis of the stylistic traits and choice of vocabulary from the prose works as well as the poetry, he has provided his own updated canon of Ralegh’s works.
Mr Brown’s decision to publish an e-book version with Amazon, having self-published in paperback, reflects support he has received from fellow authors at the Jersey Writers Group. He had grappled with the often frustrating business of dealing with a range of different potential publishers, each with their own different requirements.
He has taken a similar route with four other very different publications – a trilogy of books for children The Island Wars and The Shoestring Academy. The latter, about the founder of a language school in Jersey, is a subject very familiar to the founder of St Brelade’s College.
