IN Gary Blackwood’s novel, The Year of the Hangman, 18th-century British boy Creighton Brown’s life takes an unforeseen and unlooked-for turn after he is sent away to America - or, perhaps as Creighton might call it, the “Wilderness.” Creighton’s mother, unable to handle his rowdy behavior, arranges for Creighton to be shipped off to live with his uncle, Hugh Gower, who is to be the lieutenant governor of West Florida. Creighton comes to settle at the home of patriot Benjamin Franklin, where, as he helps Franklin publish his banned paper, the Liberty Tree, Creighton can no longer turn a blind eye to the truth behind the war and, though it was thought he would spy for the British, he befriends American general Arnold and begins to consider sympathize
