Synopses & Reviews
With all the adventure, derring-do, and bloodcurdling battle scenes of his earlier book, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, acclaimed historian Giles Milton dazzles readers with the true story of William Adams—the first Englishman to set foot in Japan (and the inspiration for James Clavell’s bestselling novel Shogun). Beginning with Adams’s startling letter to the East India Company in 1611—more than a decade after he’d arrived in Japan—Samurai William chronicles the first foray by the West
into that mysterious closed-off land. Drawing upon the journals and letters of Adams as well as the other Englishmen who came looking for him, Samurai William presents a unique glimpse of Japan before it once again closed itself off from the world
for another two hundred years.
Review
"Adams’s story is a grand one . . . [and] in Samurai William Giles Milton presents it with gusto." —
Jonathan Spence,
The New York Review of Books
"Vivid, scrupulously researched . . . It is a sheer pleasure to read." —The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Adamsandrsquo;s story is a grand one . . . and#91;andand#93; in Samurai William Giles Milton presents it with gusto."andnbsp;andmdash;
Jonathan Spence,
The New York Review of Books
"Vivid, scrupulously researched . . . It is a sheer pleasure to read."andnbsp;andmdash;The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Giles Milton is the author of The Riddle and the Knight, a critically acclaimed history of the explorer Sir John Mandeville.
Table of Contents
Samurai William Map
A Note On Spelling
Prologue
1. At The Court Of Bungo
2. Icebergs In The Orient
3. All At Sea
4. In The Name Of The Father
5. Samurai William
6. Into Unknown Lands
7. Greeting Mr. Adams
8. At Home With Richard Cocks
9. Clash Of The Samurai
10. A Question Of Language
11. Killed Like Fishes
12. A Ruptured Friendship
13. Last Orders
Notes And Sources
Acknowledgments
Index