Remember, Remember begins as a campaign for justice, moves - after a pivotal event - to a quest for vengeance and, latterly, to a daring plan to bring about radical social change.

Vincent's trial, which forms the first section of the book and is inspired by an actual case, exposes the conflict between the right to personal liberty and the financial interests of those who have profited from slavery and the products of slavery. But if you're rich and powerful, perhaps you can ignore the findings of a court and impose your own form of justice, with even Parliament unable to uphold an individual's democratic rights.

Contemporary resonances are not difficult to find; the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement being the obvious ones. At the same, the reader is immersed in the world of 18th century London from gentleman's clubs to brothels, from wide streets to stinking alleys. Although the book possesses many of the hallmarks of a period adventure story - a secret conspiracy, underground tunnels, deception, betrayal and perilous escapes - its cast of characters is distinctively diverse in terms of race and sexuality.

The cruelty of slave owners towards those they view as their 'property' is epitomised by Lord Harvey. Ruthless, implacable and sadistic, I felt the author managed - just - to keep him from being a pantomime villain. I found some of the scenes towards the end of the book in which his true nature is revealed difficult to read.

Initially focused on achieving justice for Vincent, Delphine gradually has her eyes opened to the many other injustices in society, things that are also in desperate need of change. But when peaceful protest brings no results or is suppressed, what other options do you have? The radical solution at which Delphine eventually arrives brings a moral dilemma; essentially, do the ends ever justify the means? Personally, I found her decision problematic and its result just a little too convenient. Having said that, Remember, Remember is a bold and inventive debut novel.

STUNNING!

This book had me right in the feels. The plot was fantastic. It tackles some really hard subjects that I would imagine a few of us would try to avoid but in a perfect way.

I will say that the language/ references are that of an older time. With it being a historical fiction and the story of a black woman in 1770s England, I wouldn’t expect it any other way. I’m just aware that some people may need a TW for that. Again, mentions of violence and torture, but this is an adult book!

If you’re looking for something to really get your teeth into, to further help you question the ways of the world and to follow a powerful woman’s journey to bring down an empire, I would 100% recommend! No faults from me at all! 10/10!

Things I liked about Remember, Remember:
💣 You can tell the author did a lot of research into 18th century London and the legal & moral debates around slavery at the time
💣 Though the novel is compared to Babel, I think it does a better job of portraying a range of white & Black characters the reader views on a sliding scale of sympathy. Characters like lawyer/MP Nick, with infuriating blind spots and privilege. There aren’t any caricatures here.

On the minus side, I think I was expecting more “alternate” history (the story tacked very close to actual historical events and outcomes; with books marketed as alt history I often expect major changes in the fabric of history/the setting) and shenanigans with gunpowder. The first 40% of the story is more like a historical legal thriller (which I wouldn’t have expected from the blurb), making the conspiracy part with smugglers and revolutionaries feel a little…squished.

That said, as a character study this story is great, and the way the author drew parallels between 18th century abolitionists and modern BLM protests was intriguing. The story reminded me of A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians: also an alt history novel where 18th century figures used (and circumvented) the British legal/political system to challenge the slave trade, and grappled with the ethics of action/inaction in the face of injustice. Albeit that’s a book with more vampires!

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

Remember, Remember is almost a book of two stories. The first half of the book focuses on Delphine trying to secure her brother's freedom, and this in a way could really standalone as a singular book, especially as this aspect takes a lot from events that really happened. The second half then diverges into alternate history and focuses on Delphine taking inspiration from the Gunpowder Plot to right the injustices she sees in the world. Inspiration from real events and real people are used liberally throughout this book to really bring a sense of truth to the more heavily fictional elements.

The book is not a comfortable read, it holds the reality of slavery - especially in Britain where it was "technically" illegal - up to the light, but Delphine is also forced to reckon with her own experiences and her own short sightedness. Moreover, the book focuses heavily on intersectionality, with discussions around sexuality and gender, as well as a fantastic reckoning with the power imbalance between two characters who had previously been lovers.

This book is truly interesting, and I think Machray will be one to watch if this debut is anything to go by.

The narrative revolves around Vincent and Delphine, two enslaved individuals subjected to the cruelty of Lord Henry. While Delphine successfully escapes her master's clutches, Vincent remains determined to attain his freedom, holding onto the promise made by Lord Henry. However, when Lord Henry reneges on his agreement, Vincent is forced to navigate the legal system in pursuit of justice.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Remember, Remember is a re-imagining the Gunpowder Plot. The story is set in 1770 and revolves around Delphine, a black woman who escaped enslavement and is seeking revenge for her brother Vincent.
A compelling and thought provoking read, one that considers the topics of racism, slavery, and the political justice system in colonial England.

'Remember, Remember' by Elle Machray.
1770. Delphine lives in the shadows of London: a secret, vibrant world of smugglers, courtesans and small rebellions. Four years ago, she escaped enslavement at great personal cost. Now, she must help her brother Vincent do the same.
While Britain’s highest court fails to administer justice for Vincent, little rebellions are no longer enough. What’s needed is a big, explosive plot – one that will strike at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade. But can one woman, one fuse and one match bring down an Empire?
I could not put this book down, I read the last 200 pages in one go. This book was heartbreaking in places and full of hope in others. The book shows that it can just take one very determined individual to start a revolution.
The book is so beautifully written, I cried in parts. I will definitely read more by the author.
5 out of 5 stars.

'Remember, Remember' is an outstanding historical novel full of contemporary resonances. Elle Machray's debut novel describes an audacious conspiracy led by a former slave to bring down the British Empire in 18th Century London, after all other avenues to freedom fail.

Delphine and her adopted brother Vincent are both brought to Britain from St Lucia to be domestic slaves of the cruel and tyrannical Lord Harvey. Four years after Delphine's escape, Vincent has become a renowned boxer (known as the 'Freedom Fighter') and has been promised his freedom as soon as he has won his weight in gold. But when Lord Harvey goes back on his word, Vincent enlists the support of Lord Harvey's nephew, the progressive MP Nick, to seek his freedom through a court case with far reaching consequences.

This riveting courtroom drama occupies most of the first half of the novel, but when its outcome does not bring the hoped-for change, Delphine teams up with a gang of underground smugglers and turns to other means to overthrow the British Empire, inspired by the gunpowder plot of 1605.

This is is a gripping and moving novel which arguably straddles the genres of historical fiction and speculative fiction. Real-life historical figures are included and in some cases play a pivotal role in the plot, such as Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice who oversaw a number of landmark rulings that led to abolition, and the radical MP John Wilkes. The epigraphs to many of the chapters are also genuine quotations from figures such as Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho. But Machray dares to imagine a future in which victims of oppression are able to grasp the change they so desperately need.

The novel provokes searching ethical questions about how far it is right to go in pursuit of justice, and makes us reflect on our past but also on our present and future as there is so much that hasn't changed: Black people's lives can still be counted as worth than less than white people's in many parts of the world, and vested interests can still all too often stand in the way of social reform. Delphine and her co-conspirators often seem ahead of their time - not just in terms of their attitudes to race, but also sexuality and class - but this feels deliberate rather than anachronistic.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this brilliant novel to review.

A very good, exciting book. Although part based on fact I wasn't sure if this was going to be just a tirade on slavery. Yes, it is about slavery but so much more, morphing into an adventure novel. After about 40% of the book, I thought the story was over but then the plot becomes total fiction and really takes off.
Highly recommended. I look forward to Machray's next book, but this could be hard to beat.

This book had me reading it in a day. I always enjoy books which reference historical events. Strong characters - I can see it making a gripping tv series. Second part was based on conjecture and imagination but great reading nevertheless.

This book featured in the 2024 version of the influential and frequently literary-prize-prescient annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (last year included Tom Crewe. Michael Magee and Jacqueline Crooks – and recent years have featured Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others).

The 2019 list featured Sara Collins for “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” – with which I think this novel will draw comparisons. Collins is of course a 2024 Booker judge as is the Guardian Book editor Justin Jordan: although this feels like a much more natural Women’s Prize or Nero Book Award contender as a fairly straightforwardly written but engrossing piece of alternative historical fiction.

There are two main strands to this second half 18th Century novel novel – a historical one and an alternative historical one.

The first – which dominates the first 40% or so of the novel - is explained in the foreword to the novel

Four generations after a failed attempt to destroy the British Parliament, an enslaved man, James Somerset, was to be transported from London to a Caribbean plantation. He refused. Somerset’s case was brought to trial in a time of social unrest. A revolution was brewing in America. Britain was rapidly industrialising, and its streets were fraught with protests against government corruption and unfair working conditions. He won. Somerset’s rebellion marked the beginning of the end of the transatlantic slave trade, altering the fates of approximately twenty thousand Black people living in Britain at the time and millions across the British Empire.

See here for more details (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart)

The second – which takes up the remainder of the book - is set out in the Observer article: Elle Machray’s enthralling debut came to life in an unconventional way. They were on the sofa with their partner playing a game of “what if” and landed on the idea – “what if someone tried to recreate the gunpowder plot?”

The opening protagonists of the novel are Delphine and her half-brother Vincent Mouriere. Vincent was effectively adopted by Delphine’s medicine-healer mother on the Harvey plantation in St Lucia after Vincent’s mother (herself a free woman but in having had a son by a slave) decided to abandon him and regain her freedom. The two were then taken a few years later to London to serve (and be educated, but while still being slaves) in Lord Harvey’s London household.

Delphine is given to Harvey’s daughter Pearl and over the years the two start a friendship and later an affair. Plotting to elope together ahead of an aristocratic marriage for Pearl in 1766, Pearl gets cold feet and Delphine decides to run away; working as a herbal healer/doctor in a London brothel for four years; later hearing that Pearl was killed in a highway robbery after her eventual marriage.

Vincent proves to be a great prize fighter and the book begins in 1770 on what he hopes to be his last fight – as Lord Harvey promised him that when he won his weight in prizes he would be given his freedom.

When Harvey reneges on his deal and decides to have Vincent sent back to the plantations, Delphine at Vincent’s urgings contacts Nick – Vincent’s estranged son and a radical MP in his father’s old seat (his father now in the Lords) and Vincent, increasingly aided (and at times guided) by the articulate and insightful Delphine, fights a legal case to argue for Vincent’s freedom, hoping further for it to set case law that slavery on English soil is illegal.

But when justice does not work out as Delphine had hoped and she realises the weight of commercial and economic self-interest upholding slavery (as well as many other injustices in society from the disenfranchisement of Catholics, to a lack of women’s and worker’s rights) she embarks first on a route of impactful but peacefully-intended protest and when that in turn only attracts more opposition and violence, on a more weaponised and radical route altogether, attempting to co-opt both Nick and a set of smugglers to join her plot.

If am being honest, the actual language of the novel is fairly pedestrian – perhaps just as one example our very first introduction to Vincent has him opening with the rather trite observation that “The problem with time …is there are always too many seconds when you don’t want them and never enough when you need them”.

This is very much a novel where language/writing is the service of action, explanatory dialogue and plot twists – which is not really my ideal sort of book.

The language can also feel anachronistic at times – for example at one stage we read: “Delphine takes a controlled breath in and reaches into her pocket, very, very slowly – an instinct that comes from generations of Negroes moving too quickly around white men and their guns” : but that was more deliberate and impressive for me. The author’s clear intent here is to link (across both time and geography) anger against injustice as well as the silencing of women and black voices (or worse violence directed towards them) when they try to fight it – the George Floyd BLM protests of 2020 being what drew her to writing.

And I must admit that I struggled a little with Delphine’s radicalisation – and in both the ethics and the efficacy of her weaponised plot.

However the author in her Observer interview does talk about creating a character who is compassionate and values life and then exploring “how far they can be pushed before doing something terrible”. And ultimately it is clear that the author is wanting to confront the reader with precisely the issues that caused my difficulties.

A worthwhile and thought provoking read – best I think for fans of alternative historical fiction.

I was looking forward to reading this novel. I usually enjoy historical novels that a based around fact and the premise of the young black girl seeking revenge for her brother’s death seemed enticing. The plot line however I found a bit ridiculous. From the idea that Delphine could actually get a job working with Nick, to the plot around blowing up parliament it all felt a bit far fetched.

Remember, remember the fifth of November; the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever have been stopped. It leads her to question: how far would she go to change things?

1770, Delphine escaped enslavement four years ago, and now she is about to help her brother Vincent to do the same and try to end transatlantic slavery for good.

This book stirred so many emotions in me. What the characters went through was absolutely heart-wrenching. This book will stay in my mind for a very long time. It's an incredible thought-provoking read for any book lover.

Emotional read and a book that will stay in the memory bank for a long time.

Brilliantly bought to life the conditions of the late 17th century, both political and human.

Stunning debut novel. An author to watch.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

This is not a re telling of the Gunpowder plot, instead it is a total reimagining of what we know or think we know. The story is turned on it’s head and inside out as the story revolves around siblings forced from there home in St Lucia into brutal slavery.
The writing is incredible and I love the way true events are utilised as a backstory for this incredible novel.

Remember, Remember tells the tale of a brother and sister by choice, who are enslaved in St Lucia and taken away from their mothers to London to serve Lord Harvey and his family. Vincent is a clerk and a boxer earning money towards his promised freedom, and Delphine has escaped enslavement but lives in hiding as a healer and servant in an 'exotic' brothel.

When Lord Harvey reneges on his promise to free Vincent and has him arrested, Delphine enlists the help of Lord Harvey's nephew Nick, a radical MP and lawyer who fights the case for Vincent's freedom but also for the wider fight against slavery. This fight continues long after the court case and escalates to a stunning crescendo in the book - whilst revealing the secrets and limits of a society where profit counts for more than people.

Elle Machray pulls us headfirst into the world of Delphine and Vincent, using real historical events to set the scene before creating her alternate ending.

Vincent's legal trial closely resembles and sometimes even quotes the landmark 1772 case of Somerset vs Stewart, where Lord Mansfield (who was chief justice of England at the time) ruled that Charles Stewart could not legally transport the enslaved James Somerset forcibly out of England. Mansfield meant the ruling to be narrowly interpreted, but it was perceived by many to mean that slavery had been made illegal in England.

The parallels between the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the importance of Parliament as an imperfect centre of progress and also a symbol of oppression across time were cleverly done.

I also really enjoyed the complicated and diverse characters within the book. There weren't clear cut good and bad people - everyone had histories and motivations which coloured their actions, especially those who had so much to lose. There was also a significant amount of growth and change in the thoughts and attitudes of the characters - especially the white allies of Delphine which was heartening.

This was a book about race with a firmly intersectional approach - Machray deftly highlighted the problems for LGBTQIA people at the time as well as touching on class, economic standing and neurodivergence too.

I found this weaving of real events and the subsequent fictional turn the story took to be a thought-provoking approach - Machray harnesses the complex furies and hopes of many oppressed and/or enslaved people into a vision of what the late 1700s and beyond could have been if things had gone differently.

5/5

A retelling of the Gunpowder Plot. I was really pulled into this book, the writing was excellent. A powerful storyline, fiction based on fact. A fast paced read that I will recommend.
Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced copy

Remember Remember had my brain and heart aching. I was so happy to have received this ARC from Netgalley and HarperNorth as it was one of those requests I was absolutely crossing my fingers on

The book is a reimagining of the Gunpowder plot but instead centered on colonial slavery and a black couple, Vincent and Delphine. Vincent is lead to believe that he has secured his freedom in a deal with his "Master" the evil Lord Henry, but Henry reneges on the deal, which in turn forces Vincent to try and secure his freedomm through the legal system (almost echoes the story of Amistaad in this sense and will likely be just as great)

When a book hurts your heart and makes you think, it is definitively going to be a great piece of literature. I really enjoyed how people were working together to resolve the case, black and white and then so much more

You will not be able to second guess Elle Machray's narrative flow and the plot is utterly unpredictable. Yes, it is a reimagining, but it also flips what you assumed on its head

Read this book. Read it the minute you can get your hands on it. It is truly incredible


Thank you to NetGalley and HarperNorth for this truly exceptional story. My review is left of my own volition an dall opinions are my own