Short commemorative/self-promotional thread. Today marks the 205th anniversary of the last time Britons killed Americans (intentionally) in a war: 6 April 1815, the so-called Dartmoor Massacre.

More than 5000 US PoWs had been stuck in Dartmoor Prison in southwestern England, a place so bleak that "even Scotchmen refused to live there." On 6 April 1815, a misunderstanding led to a protest which led to the guards opening fire: 9 Americans killed, dozens seriously wounded.

War of 1812 buffs will note that the peace had been agreed months before the massacre: but the US had struggled to arrange transportation to get these prisoners home. Their frustrations erupted on that April day with horrible consequences.

The survivors thought that the massacre would live in infamy; one assumed it would be remembered as keenly as the Boston Massacre. Instead almost everyone forgot about it. (Self-promotion begins.) My new book THE HATED CAGE explains why!

Lots of amazing stories to tell: about race (around a thousand of the PoWs were Black), about national identity, and about prisons. TL;DR - it's a story about how people confined indefinitely start to think their government isn't doing enough to help them.

Many thanks to my brilliant & super-supportive publishers @BasicBooks & @OneworldNews. Draft will be delivered in July so with luck and heroic editing/the survival of civilisation the book should be out in 2021. You will NOT remember so I will remind you closer to the time.

Writing still in progress but there's enough to support the obligatory cat-on-manuscript photo. Cats really drawn to this material though coincidentally there were treats on the title page./