Set in Boston and London over sixteen years, True Freedom is a panoramic account of how America came to fight Britain for its freedom in the eighteenth century.

The Boston scene is set though vignettes about the people who shaped its history. Thomas Hutchinson, sixth generation of Boston aristocracy, whose wealth is seeming unassailable. Self-taught medical doctor Thomas Young an idealist meeting his hero Samuel Adams, who is determined to have his revolution. Their Sons of Liberty and Mohucks play a key role, all the time supported from London by the radical politician John Wilkes.

True Freedom is full of vivid period details, you can almost smell parliament in London or hear the clerks scribbling away in the American Department. So too, in Boston, you can picture Faneuil Hall, experience the might of the British navy in the harbour, and feel the grit and determination of the Boston people to defy parliament in London.

Together they form facets of the main character: the Boston uprising. The facts are all there but by focussing on personal relationships especially the one between the brothers Pownall, Michael Dean takes us right to the heart of identity and sovereignty.