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The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph - 5* - My Review

The author has taken a real person of history and imagined his life. Charles Ignatius was born in 1729 on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic. His African parents had been abducted by slavers. He was sent to live with three sisters in England, who called him Sancho after the character in Don Quixote and treat him as a “pet.” Sancho learns to read and pays for it dearly.

This is a picaresque tale full of unusual adventures. Sancho’s fortunes change drastically over the course of the narrative. He is always trying to elude Sills, a slave catcher. His journey takes him into many of the era’s notable people, including Handel, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence Sterne, and Thomas Gainsborough.

The beginning third is told by Sancho in first person. It contains the perspective of a lifetime, which he is sharing with his youngest son. The second third of the novel shifts to a series of letters between Sancho and his beloved, Anne. During this time, Anne traveled to Barbados to care for her aunt, who has fallen ill. These letters allow the author to include the sufferings of slaves to the colonial British on the Caribbean plantations, which Anne observes first-hand and relates to Sancho in her letters. Sancho’s first-person narration returns in the last third and follows his life after his marriage.

The novel is written in the style of an eighteenth-century work, though the language is not antiquated or stilted. The author has obviously done his research, as the period is realistically and beautifully depicted. It is nice to find a novel that touches on slavery without being a litany of horrors, though the horrors are not ignored. Sancho is a wonderful character, and I could easily envision this book adapted to the stage or film or mini-series. It is top rate historical fiction, and I enjoyed it immensely.