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Book Review of A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke

A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke
imjustso avatar reviewed on + 21 more book reviews


I got this book because I'd read something that suggested the author had some 'new and improved' information on what had happened to the colony at Roanoke. Oh, I so often fall for the silly nonsense I read. The majority of the book is not about the actual "lost colony." There is more about the non-lost initial colony, settled by soldiers prior to the settlement of civilians. The information on what might have happened to the colonists is found in the last several pages and was not anything I had not already learned in an episode of "In Search Of" that I watched in the 1970s. If you are looking for the details of the events that lead up to Walter Ralegh sailing to America, his interactions with the Native tribes there, and politics in Elizabethan England, then you might be interested in this book. If you are looking for a shiny new resolution to one of history's mysteries, you are likely going to be disappointed. I did find the maps and John White's drawings to be very interesting, despite not caring for the book.