Greeting Mr. Milton

My Giles Milton Collection
(Big Chief Elizabeth could not make it to the photo shoot. It is currently on loan to a friend.)

I love to read. It is one of my favorite hobbies. I used to read fiction almost exclusively, but have now switched over to mostly non-fiction. Specifically I like reading popular history. In the past year or so, I discovered this British author named Giles Milton, who specializes in the genre. I have since become practically addicted to his books and they are now my most common choice in reading material.

The first book of his that I read was called Big Chief Elizabeth. It retells the true story of the "lost" colonists of Roanoke. It was non-fiction, but reads like an adventure novel. It was so good that reading it became compulsive for me. I was actually sad by the time I reached the end, so I could tell the book was good enough to re-read. It had me hooked.

After that, I was surprised to find that his later book, Samurai William, was just as good and as readable. I thought to myself, "This guy is GOOD!".

Currently I'm reading another one of his books. As I could tell from its full title, White Gold: the Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves, it is something less than politically correct and definitely history that won't be found in a school textbook. I admire Milton's boldness in that regard. Another thing I like about him is that he can find a virtually forgotten story and successfully make it interesting and fun to read for someone like me who knows little to nothing about the subject matter.

Another one of his works that sounds fascinating is The Riddle and the Knight. It explores the story of one Sir John Mandeville, who claimed to have journeyed across the globe and recounted his story in a rather fantastical memoir. Interestingly, Milton combines Mandeville's story with a modern day travelogue in which he retraces the knight's steps to prove whether or not his story was true. I plan to read that soon.

Milton himself is also a world traveler. As research for his books, he has traveled to the Americas, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Japan. Being able to experience all those different cultures must be great. WHAT A DREAM JOB!! I bet his trips to foreign countries are what really helps add that sense of realism that plays a large part in what makes his books so great. I would love to meet him someday, he must be such an interesting person. I hope he keeps writing his popular histories, because I'll be sure to keep reading them.