The Heritage

In her stunning new novel of love and heartbreak set against the backdrop of political rebellion, author D J Presson turns her attention to 17th century England, and the story of America's immigrant past in The Heritage. On a squalid cobblestone street in London in 1641, Nick Press happens upon a young minstrel boy lying helpless and bloodied, cruelly punished for the crime of speaking out against England's King Charles I. In an impulsive act of kindness that will change their lives forever, Nick takes the mutilated boy home to his family's tenant farm on Lord Percival Owen's land at Horn Church Manor. Nick and his sister Anne know well the dangers of speaking out against the Crown. Burning with righteous passion for the cause of political and religious freedoms, hotheaded Nick fights against royalist forces with Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army in the English Civil Wars, while his bright and talented younger sister, Anne, works with their father to secretly print illegal pamphlets and opposition broadsheets in a tiny shed hidden on Lord Owen's land. The fruits of their covert rebellion realized, they attend the historic trial and execution of the bloodthirsty monarch. But their hope for peace in the Commonwealth and the happy anticipation of Anne's wedding day is shattered with the tragic death of their five-year old sister, Jane. The arrest of Lord Owen's wicked son Rupert for the crime begins a chain of events that entwine their lives with his, leading to a night of violence that irrevocably seals their fates. Anne's life is changed forever, and she must embark with Nick on a dangerous voyage across the sea to an uncertain future and a new beginning in the English colony of Virginia. With brilliant descriptions and lyrical prose, novelist D J Presson takes the reader into the vibrant world of 17th century England, conjuring a nuanced realism of our common humanity amidst the dynamic political and social drama of the era.