So informative and great to learn about ethnic minorities in the 18th century. This book provides real-life chapters of Charles Ignatius Sancho, a free black man in England. He encounters slave catchers, London life, good people and eventually his future wife, Anne Osborne. Such an important book for anyone interested in history, society and culture.

Based on a true story, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, is a debut novel by Paterson Joseph. And you can tell it’s been written by an actor and literature lover. The dialogue and descriptions are strewn with nods to Dickens and quotes from Shakespeare.

The story of the writer, shopkeeper and abolitionist, starts with ‘Sancho’ being born a slave and shipped to Georgian London as a toddler.

His secret diaries and letters written to his son before he dies, tell of his ups and downs, and the extremes of what life has thrown at him.

Along the way he has met servants, slave-catchers, gamblers and kings, with many a famous name dropped in along the way.

Sometimes the story felt a little disjointed, as if there were some holes in the plot, but I imagine that might be down to the original research. It’s always hard with historic novels knowing how much actually happened.

I can imagine it making a great BBC costume drama. I’d be surprised if it hasn’t been signed up already.

Thank you to NetGalley for this preview to review in my own words.

Charles Ignatius Sancho - a bit pompous, not completely likeable but totally fascinating. This is the story of a real black man born into slavery but living a good life in 18th century London. The historical detail is fascinating with many mentions of well-known figures and an interesting depiction of attitudes to black people three centuries past.

This is the fictional story of the real Charles Ignatius Sancho and it had me griped from the start.

It starts in 1729 when Charles is born on a slave ship and he loses both his parents. Forward to 1746 and he is constantly on the run from slave catchers and trying to find the person that showed him a kindness once. What follows is an incredibly moving story both beautiful and heartbreaking.

The way the author manages to bring the Georgian era alive is transfixing, their narrative is very descriptive and immersive.

It's always a bit disconcerting reading a work of fiction by someone known in another capacity whether personally or through a high profile job as here. As a reader will the awareness of the author change the reading at all? In this case I think that the author's other job, as an actor, adds a veracity to the book through his own knowledge of the history and language of the time that maybe a non-actor wouldn't have been able to add. And there was no need to worry about voice: Sancho's voice is so clear and consistent that this does not feel like fiction at all, or in this case a fictionalised biography but a genuine 18th century diary.

Charles Ignatius Sancho was a real man, a Black man living in 18th century London. Born a slave, he is given to three sisters to raise, until he is grown and they tire of him. Luckily he has influential patrons, unluckily he still has to make a living and avoid the slave catchers who aren't too bothered about the status of any person they can make money from. But thanks to his intelligence and tenacity, Sancho not just survives but flourishes, a business man, father, husband, friend and abolitionist. Paterson Joseph doesn't lionise his hero, Sancho is flawed, sometimes pompous, but very real.

In his introduction Joseph warns us: Don't read this book if you want slavery porn, nor are the struggles of people of Colour in the 18th century ignored in a Bridgertonesque masquerade. Like his hero, Joseph has conjured up a London where racism, prejudice and cruelty are rife, but so is kindness, love, friendship. There is a real air of menace to some parts of the book, scenes as upsetting as a scene set on a plantation would have been, but also many scenes of humour, happiness, love, hope.

So authentically written it feels like it could be shelved alongside any 18th century work this is a rich, fascinating debut. Highly recommended.

The fictionalised life of Charles Ignatius Sancho, a black composer & writer also believed to be the first black man to vote in Britain.
Born on a slave ship but losing both his mother, in giving birth to him, & his father Sancho is sold to 3 spinster sisters who, whilst not physically cruel, treat him as a pet. Eventually he is discarded when they realise that he has been secretly having lessons to read & write.
Life as an educated black man in London is tough. The portrayal of Edwardian London moves from the sleazy back streets & taverns to the opulence of the rich. Sancho ‘s acquaintance with Duke of Montagu allows him to eventually find work & freedom.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I think Paterson Joseph has quite the career ahead of him in historical fiction!
I love the Georgian period as London was just beginning to modernise and become the city we now know and love. I’ve read plenty of historical fiction and non fiction works on the abolition of slavery and slavery itself in the USA. Sadly few authors gave written about the early black members of British society and Charles Sancho is definitely a man to write about. Acting, voting, conversing with the King himself our hero is bright, effervescent and utterly charming and I found myself rooting for him from the first chapter.
I read the book quickly over a few days and will happily read anything else that Mr Joseph decides to write in the future.

Really loved this book and the characters. Wasn’t sure when I requested it but love Paterson Joseph so thought I’d give it a go. Absolutely fascinating and have already recommended it to friends and family!

Initial thought (full review to come)
A heartbreaking, beautiful and poignant retelling of the life of Charles Ignatius Sancho through the diaries anf and letters between a father and son.
Paterson Joseph proves himself to be the most wonderful of social historian's and indeed storytellers as he recounts the life of Charles Ignatius (or Sancho as he was commonly known) to his son Billy. The story begins with the birth of young Sancho and from this moment, we realise that this story is not a sanitised fairytale but indeed an account of real man and his experience the daily pains and humilations so often visited on Black people at the hands of white people. A

This is a fictional story about a real person, by being fictionalised the story is entertaining as well as informative. The atmospheric and evocative descriptions really bring the character of Charles Ignatius Sancho to life. I feel that the book opens up a new perspective of life in the 18th century, whilst at the same time the use of history also spotlights issues in the modern world. This is the type of personal story that can broaden your understanding of people in general. It is also very much a story of London.

I read this as a free digital review copy via NetGalley.

I don't tend to go for novels by actors very often, not even when I like the actor, but between Paterson Joseph's recent co-written radio play about Septimius Severus, and his Radio 3 Essay about Sancho, this felt like it deserved my attention. Certainly the setting helped (Georgian London, one of the times London was at its Londoniest), not to mention the lead himself, an abolitionist and composer believed to have been the first black man to vote in Britain. Someone, too, about whom Joseph has previously performed a one-man show, compounding the tendency when reading a book by an author whose voice one knows to hear it in that voice, see him in the lead role. Something which at times here cuts against the text; Joseph normally presents such an assured, suave presence (hell, even in Peep Show he got to play a character who mostly gave the impression of having his shit together, at least for a while, and there were precious few of those) that it can be difficult to hold on to some of the flaws he admits on his narrator's behalf, such as the portliness and the lisp. Not that these are Sancho's only flaws, mind: Joseph makes clear in his opening note that he's not interested in creating a hagiography here, nor its opposite, either as regards the lead or his age: this is designedly, and much to its benefit, neither "a tale filled with whips and curses and rapes and murders" nor "pageant and a multicultural cast of larger-than-life characters, sashaying unmolested through London". "I did not write this book to stir debate on the historical accuracy surrounding the presence of Black People in the United Kingdom in ages past. The numbers are disputed, naturally, the presence is not. This, only, is my goal: to depict that presence in the form in which I met Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Jane Eyre." Although I would suggest that Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones might be even better comparisons, as befits the age. Certainly this Sancho recounts episodes which as far as I know are Joseph's additions to the life, but which put me in mind of Fielding, where our hero falls into bad ways and endures periods of penury and danger before getting back into the good graces of his benefactors and reaching a point of stability from which he can properly establish himself. Although Fielding, of course, was still more of a believer in hierarchy than would feel comfortable in any modern writer, even if he could nibble at the edges of it with foundlings and suchlike devices. Here, on the other hand, there's a keen awareness of class, which is frequently at least as responsible as race for making Sancho feel like an outsider, as when the father of his first love, a girl from a poor white family, objects to the intended union not on the grounds of the colour of his skin, but the unworldliness he has learned as first the jealously guarded pet of three spinsters, and then through the attentions of a philanthropic nobleman. Not that this is the novel's only theme either, of course; it's just as interested in giving us portraits of the great, good and otherwise of Georgian London, through encounters with the likes of Hogarth, Dr Johnson, George II himself. If I have a quibble it's contained within that 'otherwise'; the obvious villain of the piece is the slave-catcher Jonathan Sill, but for all Sancho's understandable fear of him, Sill never quite attains the malign, grotesque stature I'd expect of the antagonist in an 18th century novel. Which, of course, might be a deliberate choice on Joseph's part, not wanting to let Sill loom large enough to pull the book over into those whips and curses and murders, and if so, fair enough. Because what's very clear from this is that the man can write, whether that be steering through the narrow passageway between pastiche and anachronism*, or little timeless observations like the way that people seem to lose half their life force when their lifelong love loses all of theirs. This is perhaps sacrificed a little as the book moves towards its endgame and speeds up, skipping through whole years with only infrequent letters, which must do double duty in giving us both a love story, and a monster whose crimes are far more graphically realised than Sill's. Certainly I suspect that another hundred pages, a little more room to maintain the bagginess and texture of influences (and cameos) like Fielding and Sterne, could have served it well. But for a debut novel it's still bloody good.

*I did notice one, late in the day, when Kingsway is present rather too soon - but as a passing mention rather than anything integral, it's easy enough to avert one's eyes.

(Netgalley ARC)

Written largely in the form of a memoir for his son, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho is a work of historical fiction by the actor Paterson Joseph.

The protagonist was a real person who lived in Georgian Britain. The most fascinating aspect of the book for me was the lives of black Britons at that time, and how they were perceived.

The story was a little slow for me, with not a lot of action, but the descriptiveness was well written.

Thank you to Little Brown and to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Firstly I'd like to say I really enjoyed reading this book. Set in the middle of the 18th century, the story of Charles Ignatious Sancho, is a black man born on a slave ship. His mother dying in childbirth is very fortunate to be taken in by Three sisters as a pet and servant, although kept in his place. A kindly Duke comes across him and educates him in secret. When his secret comes out he is shut in the cellar and forgotten about. Tilly the housemaid let's him out, packs him a bag and leaves him to the streets of London.
His slow rise above the deprecation follows.
Many of the characters mentioned you will recognise although this is a work of fiction.
It ends with slavery on the cusp of being made illegal.

I found this fictionalised autobiographical story of the first black man in Great Britain to have been given the vote interesting but not entirely compelling. The writing style made you forget that this was not a contemporaneous account but that made it slightly less readable. There is no doubt however that this was an interesting story to tell and Paterson Joseph did so in an accomplished and polished way.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy to read and review.

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph
I had not heard of this fascinating character and so it was really interesting to read about his life and to look at his portrait as painted by Gainsborough. The actor Paterson Joseph has done a remarkable job investigating his history and also embellishing it in order to flesh out the small amount which we know about him.
Sancho was born on a slave ship in 1729 and he was given to three sisters in Greenwich when he was only two years old. He remains with the sisters until he is 20 years old but during this time he visits Montagu House in Blackheath where the owner instilled in him a love of literature. He had to hide his ability to read and write from his owners. He is helped by Tilly, a servant in the household and it is her who finally enables him to escape.
In the novel his life is recounted through the letters he wrote at the time as he explains his history to his son Billy. We hear of the terrible cruelties which Sancho is exposed to and through the life of his wife the terrible situation in Barbados and Antigua.
During his life he encounters many of the rich and famous such as David Garrick the actor, Handel, Benjamin Franklin and even converses with the King. It is a fascinating account of his life and I discovered a great deal about this multi-talented man.
Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Set in a fascinating time period, from a perspective rarely talked about in British culture. The author, Paterson Joseph, writes in his forward that he hopes that while reading this book that we smile, laugh, rage and cry. He continues to say that those sentiments assure ourselves that whatever our origin, we can all agree that no one should be denied their freedom to belong where they are raised.

Now although I agree wholeheartedly that no soul on this planet should be denied their freedom to belong, I can’t say I felt much rage or joy in reading. There was no laughter or tears.

It is readable for sure but I found the constant flipping between extracts of a young man’s diary, letter to Charles Ignatius’s son and further letters between him and his wife to be difficult. I did not enjoy the transitions and though the subject matter was interesting I found it lost power in the manner of telling.


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This is the story of Charles Ignatius Sancho. These are his diaries written for his son William.

Born on a slave ship his mother died in childbirth and his father killed himself. Charles a newborn orphan was now taken to a plantation in New Grenada. Charles knew his master by only the name of Mr Henry.

When Charles was 3 years old Mr Henry took him to England and he was sent to live with Mr Henry’s 3 maiden aunts in Royal Greenwich. The Aunts name call Charles by the name of Sancho and treat him more like a pet than a human being. Alongside Tilly, the maid, the aunts are known as the coven.

A chance encounter with Duke John of Montagu leads to reading and writing lessons with the kindly Duke under the guise of helping Tilly at the market fetching food for the coven.

Georgian London is not a safe place for a young Black man, Sancho must dodge slave catchers and worse. The man he hoped would help, adujé John is dying. Sancho finds himself desperately and utterly alone.

So how does Charles come to meet the King, write and play music, become the first Black person to vote in Britain and lead the fight to end slavery?

This book is beautifully written. It’s written as a diary and also, in between, Sancho stops to write comments to his son. There is some language that is offensive however the author does not glorify it and it is used in the context of the storyline. This is a thought provoking, heart wrenching and emotional book. At times I had to remind myself that this was historical fiction and not a real diary but I am well aware that the incidents that the author has written about would have probably occurred in real life. I cannot recommend this book enough

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, by Paterson Joseph.

This is a historical work of fiction but based on the true story of Charles Ignatius Sancho. He is someone I only recently became aware of, and that was due to a Google Doodle. So needless to say when I was given the opportunity to have a ARC copy from Netgallery UK and Dialogue Books I was extremely excited to read more. I wasn't disappointed. Here is my unbiased review.

This book while fictional, draws a lot on Sanchos' (as he was pretty much known throughout his life) own true story and that allows us to be engaged in a memoir style of book, rather than a history text book. As such it works wonderfully and we become immersed in a lifestyle that is both cruel and for Sancho at least, what became a pretty luxurious upbringing in England. Where he was raised though was more for entertainment value to those around him, and it undoubtedly leaves Sancho in a sort of no-mans land of where he belongs.

There is nothing hidden from certain events - the opening chapter alone is gritty and uncompromising in the realities faced by many Black people of the time. Yet Sancho is also shielded from a lot of this reality, and he realised that it became a barrier for him.

Despite some of the bleakness we get a far more rounded view overall and the courtship with Anne who would become his wife, and his desire to leave a mark on this world brought a balance that I worried would be too condescending of the Black experiences, and yet was far from that. If anything it helped highlight the Black experiences from multiple points of view and that for me is where the book really worked.

I highly recommend this book. Both as historical fiction and as a lesson in Black UK history.
Charles Ignatius Sancho deserves to be a household name, and books such as this will hopefully bring him more to the fore.

Highly recommended reading and without a shadow of a doubt, 5/5 stars 🌟
A dazzling book that should grace any bookshelf.

I love reading history - fact, fiction or something of both, I enjoy it all. I especially like reading about hidden history which sadly includes the many black Britons before Windrush.

So I have been so looking forward to this book since I first heard about it. Huge thanks to Paterson and his snap Twitter giveaway I was able to read an early proof.

I'm happy to report this book does not disappoint. The story of Charles Ignatuius Sancho is utterly compelling and so well drawn by the author.

His story is told through the writing of a diary of his life he wishes to leave to his son. From his arrival on England's shores through his trials and successes you are right there with him.

What an extraordinary but at the same time ordinary life. The people he meets and his luck is incredible but through the diaries we can see he shares fears most of us have - where will life take us, will we find someone to love, what legacy do we leave for our children.

Really enjoyed the insights into life in Barbados we gain through his letters between him and his wife Anne while they are in the early days of their relationship.

Definitely not all doom and gloom though as he recounts some cracking nights out in the inns and fleshpots of London and often in great company too - Dr Samuel Johnstone, William Hogarth & David Garrick are just a few famous names who make an appearance in the story. And boy does Sancho love his food - something I can definitely relate to!

A special mention to the gorgeous cover too - absolutely beautiful!

The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho
I have long admired Paterson Joseph as an actor, ever since I first saw him onstage playing Atahualpha, the Inca King betrayed and murdered by the invading Spaniards in The Royal Hunt of the Sun by Peter Shaffer. It was, therefore, a privilege to be able to read this, his first novel, and to discover that he is not only a superb actor, but also an excellent writer and a Social Historian, who has very effectively recaptured both d the atmosphere and society of early to mid-Georgian England, most specifically relating to the lives of the perhaps surprisingly large number of people of colour who inhabited London at the time, and the experiences of enslaved black people in Barbados, toiling in awful conditions in sugar and tobacco plantations for their often cruel white owners and overseers.
My interest was thoroughly engaged by the book, written in a style like that of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Adventures of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman. However, the modern reader may well be relieved to discover that Joseph, although he uses a mixture of diary entries and letters to tell his tale which encompasses the life of the eponymous protagonist from birth to the age of 51 years, does not go into the precise and, some might say, overly verbose and florid detail of his celebrated predecessor. As a result, this book is extremely suitable for the modern reader, who will be engaged by the multifarious adventures of Joseph’s charming, colourful hero, Charles Aloysius Sancho as he evades captivity and slave catchers, dips his toe into bohemian, Georgian life in the company of luminaries such as Dr Johnson, Thomas Gainsborough and the renowned actor, David Garrick. He works as a valet, a messenger, the assistant to a Vicar, a composer of light music and even as an actor, treading the boards in a single performance of Shakespeare’s Othello. He mixes with the higher echelons of society, too, through his employment with the Dowager Duchess of Mansfield, widow of his first patron, who teaches him to read and encourages his thirst for education, and the Second Duke who, courtesy of his situation as close aide to King George The Third, converses with Royalty and teaches music to the youngest members of the Royal Family.
The reader will be gripped, too, by the account of life in Barbados by Sancho’s beloved, later his wife, Anne Clarke, and moved by her accounts, through letters to Sancho, of the awful situation of enslaves peoples of their colour, in particular, the moving story of nine-year-old Ata, violated by a wicked overseer and, as a result, having her lively spirit crushed forever.
For the Social Historian, it is interesting to have an insight into the lives of coloured people living in this period, as well as into the Bohemian world of artists, writers, musicians, and actors at the time. Paterson Joseph has clearly undertaken a good deal of historical research, but he has cloaked the research within a gripping narrative peopled with thoroughly engaging characters. This is an excellent debut, and, although I hope that Paterson Joseph will continue his career on the stage, I also look forward to more novels from the pen of this talented new author.
Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars.