Dangerous Freedom

'They tell you one thing but you are not free.' London in 1802 is a dangerous place for black people, unsure of their legal status and threatened by slave catchers. Elizabeth d'Aviniere, the mixed race great-niece of the Lord Chief Justice, who had spent her childhood in his home, now fears for her own children's safety and yearns for her mother, an African-born enslaved woman. Why did she no longer write? Was she dead? Had she been recaptured?
Dangerous Freedom weaves fact with fiction to reveal 'the great deception' exercised by the powerful on the child known as Dido as seen through the eyes of the adult Elizabeth. This magnificent and radical portrayal of a known historical character adds to our understanding of a trauma that continues to exist just below the surface of contemporary life.

Lawrence Scott is a prize-winning novelist and short story writer from Trinidad & Tobago. He was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 2019. He was awarded a Lifetime Literary Award in 2012 by the National Library of Trinidad & Tobago for his significant contribution to the Literature of Trinidad & Tobago. His first novel, Witchbroom (1992) was read as a BBC Book at Bedtime, and republished by Papillote Press (2017). His most recent book, the collection of stories, Leaving by Plane Swimming Back Underwater, 2015, was longlisted for The Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2016, the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Association des Ecrivains de la Caraïbe from the Congrès des Ecrivains de la Caraïbe, Guadeloupe, 2017 and the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, 2015. His other novels are Light Falling on Bamboo (2012), Night Calpyso (2004) and Aelred's Sin (1998). He lives in London and Trinidad.