The Bastard

Phillipe Charboneau grows up in France as the unrecognised son of the Duke of Kentland. After his father’s death, the legitimate Kentland family denies his claim and forces him into a struggle that carries him through London and into contact with political radicals and American colonists. Rejecting the position assigned by birth, he adopts the name Philip Kent and sails for the New World.

America offers reinvention but not safety. Philip arrives during the imperial crisis that precedes the Revolution and becomes involved with printers, patriots and political organisers, including Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. The novel establishes the Kent family’s central conflict between inherited status and self-created identity while placing its founder inside the movement towards American independence.