COURTESY PHOTOS
Written by John Sayles, “Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey” begins in 1746 in the highlands of Scotland.
SANTA BARBARA — Oscar-nominated filmmaker John Sayles will discuss his new novel, “Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey,” at 6 p.m. March 3 at Chaucer’s, 3321 State St.
The novel spans 13 years, two continents, several wars and many bloody and smoke-filled battlefields.
“Jamie MacGillivray” begins in the highlands of Scotland in 1746, at the Battle of Culloden, the last desperate stand of the Stuart “pretender” to the throne of the Three Kingdoms, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and his rabidly loyal supporters.
Vanquished with his comrades by the forces of the Hanoverian (and Protestant) British crown, Jamie MacGillivray narrowly escapes a roadside execution only to be recaptured by the victors and shipped to Marshalsea Prison (central to Charles Dickens’s “Hard Times”) where he cheats the hangman a second time before being sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude in colonial America “for the term of his natural life.” His travels are paralleled by those of Jenny Ferguson, a poor, village girl swept up on false charges by the English and also sent in chains to the New World.
The novel follows Jamie and Jenny through servitude, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements. The two cross paths with each other and meet leading figures of the era, including future novelist Henry Fielding, the artist William Hogarth, and a young and ambitious George Washington.
Mr. Sayles has been nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay, for “Passion Fish” (1992) and “Lone Star” (1996). He has written seven novels, including “Yellow Earth” (2020) and “A Moment in the Sun” (2011). \
— Dave Mason
