THE ROAD TO NEWGATE by Kate Braithwate

An opportunist with a vindicative nature and no conscience uses his skills in delivering fear-mongering religious/political hyperbole to incite the masses. In this timeless tale, Nat uses his writing skills to discredit the opportunist, Titus Oates, who has skillfully enraged the Protestants of London against the so-called Popish Plot of 1678 pursuant to which Catholics allegedly were scheming to assassinate King Charles II. Rotating first-person accounts of Nat, his wife Anne and their dear friend William unfold the dangers they all face when Nat musters his courage to seek justice by publishing his convictions about Titus’s deceit. Nat is cautioned “(t)his is not about the truth…It’s about power,” and his perseverance leads him to infamous Newgate prison where he is “seasick as a stowaway, trapped in the dark,” among the noxious smells, lice, cockroaches and disease and the “unhappy song” of wailing and rumbling chains, all of which break many a man. Outside Newgate, seventeenth-century London comes alive, where it takes “Hackney courage” to endure and at the market, where Anne shops for a “colourful gewgaw.” Nate and Anne’s marriage is strained to the brink, but its endurance and their love and trust can strengthen Nat to get to the heart of Titus’s deceptions. The story is very much rooted in the historical record and when the tables turn on Titus, the enduring question is whether either side of religious and political zealotry can ever be right and dispense justice fairly. The Road to Newgate is a story well-told and an important reminder that studying historical events can give us insights on contemporary behaviors.