"Richard Woodman has written an original, compelling and brilliantly imagined blend of fact and fiction with all the skill of a novelist at the height of his powers." Frank McLynn A tale of deception, corruption, courage and adventure, Beyond Madagascar: A Bold & Consequential Voyage is at once a history, a novel - and a polemical work of some force. Set during the first half of the seventeenth century it tells the story of a long forgotten episode buried under the subsequent trauma of the English Civil War - the proposed colonisation of the island of Madagascar and what, in its failure, followed from it: the first mercantile voyage made by a British ship to China. The author skilfully weaves the lives of a number of historical figures - ranging from Shakespeare to King Charles I - and reasserts Captain John Weddell's place in Great British maritime history. 'The Madagascar Project' was an ill-starred commercial venture conceived by William D'Avenant, Shakespeare's godson and - possibly, for so the man himself contested, his bastard. As the Project implodes Captain John Weddell turns his sights towards China. While following Weddell on his naval adventure, Woodman addresses some of the key issues of the time - and highlights the consequences of British opening up trade with China. Beyond Madagascar is an enthralling work by a masterful author, renowned for various bestselling fiction and non-fiction naval titles, that tells an extraordinary story in an original fashion. Praise for Richard Woodman: "The general reader will be engrossed in the narrative, while students of the era will admire Woodman's accurate eye for historical detail and vocabulary and his incisive reveals of the customs and attitudes of the time." - Paul Bannister "If Neptune's Trident sets the standard for what is to follow - we can at least rest assured that there is a series that truly does justice to our proud merchant maritime past." - Nautilus UK Telegraph "Richard Woodman tells many a good tale in this first volume and it is fascinating to read. I highly recommend this first volume in the Neptune s Trident for anyone with an interest in the early modern period. If the rest of the series is as good as this one, they should all be on the bookshelves of those studying the history of Britain, from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries." - Open History Richard Woodman is an acclaimed and bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction titles. Among other books he is the author of A History of the Merchant Navy and a series of novels on the life of William Marshal, England's Greatest Knight.