1720. Blue Mountains, windward Jamaica. In the sweltering heat Captain Shettlewood leads a troop of British soldiers through the thick trees towards the river. They are hunting slaves who have escaped from the brutal plantations. Their mission: to find them, and kill them. But up ahead, hidden among the rocks above the water, a group of men with cutlasses and muskets wait patiently for the instructions of their leader. Queen Nanny is a 'wise woman' with a reputation for ancient obeah magic, and a guerilla fighter with a genius for organisation. So the battle for Jamaica begins, the First Maroon War, in which the maroons - escaped slaves - will make a final, do-or-die stand against the slavers and soldiers of Empire.

"Queen of Freedom drills down into the tenacity of the freed slaves and the cunning lengths they went to to live free" - Observer

"Brilliant.. gripping, atmospheric and moving" - Guardian

"Cracking illustrations, true life stories in the vein of the ladybird books but more substantial ... brilliantly written by proper writers" - Frank Cottrell-Boyce