Rat poison is set out in the shack, “carefully, carefully, like meals fit for kings”. So far, African-Canadian writers have not enjoyed the same profile, but that could change with George & Rue. George Elliott Clarke, already established as a poet, bases his first novel on a brutal murder in Novia Scotia in 1949: two African-Canadians, George and Rufus Hamilton, robbed a taxi driver and battered him to death with a hammer. The murder aroused such widespread revulsion that its location is still known as “Hammertown”. Clarke discovered that George and Rue were distant cousins of his, and the novel is the result of his fascination with the case.
The brothers were born in Three Mile Plains, a settlement of disintegrating shacks which housed a community lacerated by poverty and racism. The US has many famous African-American novelists. These plays were not attributed to Shakespeare until the date of publication, seven years after his death.

ADAM SMITH, THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, 1776 The Scottish economist Adam Smith wrote his groundbreaking thesis in the earliest phases of the Industrial Revolution and set the foundation for modern economics. He supports the theory that the less government interferes with business, the more prosperous the nation will be. ISAAC NEWTON, PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, 1687 Generally regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science, the Principia sets out Newton’s laws of motion which formed the basis for his law of universal gravitation. It also contains the Hypotheses non fingo (“I do not assert that any hypotheses are true”)..

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, FIRST FOLIO, 1623 The first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623, contains plays we would otherwise have lost, including Macbeth and As You Like It. PATENT SPECIFICATION FOR ARKWRIGHT’S SPINNING MACHINE, 1769 Richard Arkwright, a barber from Bolton, moved to Nottingham, and in July 1769 he enrolled the specification of his famous first patent for spinning by rollers. James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny in 1964, but only patented it in July 1770. The Football Association’s book regulated the game in and around London but in the provinces clubs continued to follow their local rules for some time. MICHAEL FARADAY, EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN ELECTRICITY, 1855 Faraday’s research into electricity and magnetism established him as the foremost experimental scientist of his day. By inventing the dynamo, he made the generation of electricity possible, thereby paving the way for modern technology.

THE FIRST RULE BOOK OF THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, 1863 The first game ever played under the rules took place on 9 January 1863 at Battersea Park in south-west London. From that moment, the king was no longer permitted to change anything without the barons’ permission The meaning of certain clauses is still a cause for dispute. THE KING JAMES BIBLE, 1611 Controversial because it was a translation into the English spoken by the common people. It had a profound influence on ensuing translations and on English literature as a whole. Works by John Bunyan, John Milton, Herman Melville, John Dryden and William Wordsworth were inspired by it. MAGNA CARTA, 1215 Rebellious British noblemen forced King John to sign a document which contained 63 clauses defining his feudal rights.