Philippa Gregory - 'Virgin Earth'

So for those of you who read my last post, 'Virgin Earth' is the sequel to 'Earthly Joy'. Very conveniently both of the books were on sale cheaply when I bought the first one for bookclub so naturally I had to buy/read the second one too. As much as I enjoyed the first book, I think I like the second one better. 'Virgin Earth' looks at the journey of John Tradescant the Younger (aka as J in the first book). He travels to America. Specifically to Virginia in it its early days as a Royalist colony. John falls in love with the native people and the plants in the colonies while of course still loving what he had left behind in England. This book explores the barbaric nature of the treatment of indigenous inhabitants, slavery, conflicting loyalty, idealism, family and the English Civil war. I have realised how limited my knowledge is of this era! Time to do some non-fiction reading too I think. Not that the book isn't perfectly easy to follow without that background, but my curiousity has been sparked. I found in this book the characters less complex in this book, but that this meant some of the themes were are little more confrontational. I enjoyed the book and definitely recommend it to people who like 'meaty' historical fiction.