In 1650, a group of English exiles chose to establish a new colony in the lush landscape between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, in present-day Suriname. Naming the region for Barbados's governor Sir Francis Willoughby, the settlers experienced one of colonialism's most spectacular rises. But as the author of Goldeneye relates here, Willoughbyland's initial explorers and dissidents were followed by traders, soldiers, and mercenaries, and the one-time paradise became a place of terror and cruelty, of sugar and slavery—a microcosm of the history of empire.

"[Matthew] Parker has trawled the letters and literature, and traveled out to Suriname, and the result is a miniature masterpiece.... This is a truly extraordinary tale and, in Parker's hands, it's beautifully told."—Spectator (London)