I am selecting different types of reading material now.

  The past few years, I read whatever crossed my path, usually novels that I missed the past 35 years or else books (usually fiction) that looked appealing.

Now, as I begin "retirement", I will "upgrade" the selections with items of non-fiction such as biography and history.

"Savage Kingdom - The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America" by Benjamin Woolley: published in 2007, which makes it current enough to take advantage of the knowledge gained by the Jamestown Rediscovery project, which has excavated the site of the original fort.

The author is British, an established writer and presenter for the BBC. The story of Jamestown is told with an emphasis on it's British beginnings with the Virginia Company. The aim was to discover minerals and commodities in North America to rival the Spanish assets in South and Central America; then to create a viable settlement with people of varying specialties.

We meet Captain John Smith (his version of the earliest exploration is the only one that survives, but probably he was mostly correct). He tells how Pocahontas saved his life when her father was about to have him executed. She was only a child and seems to have considered him more of a young father-figure rather than a lover. Later, she falls in love with John Rolfe (who started growing Central American tobacco in Virginia and saved the colony's economy); they married and had a son whose family connections are still among us.

On the British side, details of the politics of the colony's founding are revealed. The Virginia Company already had a streak of "Independence" that was troubling to the Crown (King James l--all he cared about was raising taxes and collecting European paintings). His oldest son, Henry was very interested in the colony, but he died young from disease. Charles, who inherited the throne from his father was much like him--at odds with Parliament and always wasting money.

The book is written so a casual reader can enjoy it, but backed up by footnotes and a solid bibliography for the scholar. I am interested in visiting Jamestown, so I really enjoyed the book. An ancestor of mine, Henry Bagwell, was an immigrant who came on the "Sea Venture" in 1609; he experienced the ship wreck, sojourn in Bermuda and eventual arrival at the colony.