A Star on the Mizzen

by Simon Parker

In May 1896 more than 300 armed troops were stationed on the streets of Newlyn, while three navy gunboats patrolled offshore and police reinforcements were drafted from other districts after pitched battles were fought in the Cornish fishing port. The events that led to what many regarded as an unnecessary show of force by the authorities was a protest by several hundred fishermen who refused to go to sea on Sundays, but whose livelihoods were threatened by Sabbath-breaking crews from the East Coast. A Star On the Mizzen tells, through the imagined thoughts of one of the so-called ringleaders, the story of three dangerous days that shook Parliament.

Price: £4 (free p&p)