JOURNEY TO THE MAYFLOWER:

The sailing of the Mayflower, the ship that took the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World, is a fundamental event in American history, but it began as an English story that pioneered the idea of religious freedom. The illegal underground movement of Protestant separatists from Elizabeth I's Church of England is a story of subterfuge and danger, arrests and interrogations, prison and executions. It starts with Queen Mary's attempts to burn Protestantism out of England which created a Protestant underground. Later, when her reformation didn't go far enough, radicals recreated that underground, meeting illegally, facing prison and death for their crimes. They went into exile in the Netherlands where they lived in poverty and made their plans for the New World. Historian Stephen Tomkins tells this fascinating story, one that is rarely told as an important piece of English as well as American history that is full of contemporary relevance - religious violence, the threat to national security, freedom of religion, and the tolerance of dangerous opinions. The book is hair raising, sometimes hilarious and often tragic in telling the stories of the men and women who suffered or survived it. Tomkins has a PhD in Church History from the London School of Theology. 372pp, paperback.