Saxby: a tale of old and new England

The 1640s: England torn apart by civil war, and a generation of Puritans faces an impossible choice. Stay and fight for reform of the Church of England, or flee across an ocean to build a new society where conscience is free. At the center of this tumultuous transatlantic world stands Sir Harry Vane the Younger, politician and theologian, whose double life as English parliamentarian and Massachusetts governor made him one of the most fascinating figures of his age. Emma Leslie traces the religious and political upheaval that drove Puritans to seek refuge in the New World, weaving a narrative that makes the stakes of that era visceral and immediate. This is historical fiction that doesn't just recount events, it asks what people will sacrifice for faith, and what they gain when they build a world from nothing. For readers who love richly textured 17th-century settings and stories of principled exile.