About the Book

The tale begins in London in the 1730s; Tom Ellis is trapped in debt and heading for the Fleet, a notorious debtors’ prison. By happenstance Tom is sucked into a fight in a pub, defending a drunken aristocrat—James Oglethorpe—and his life is changed forever.
Languishing in prison, he is rescued by Oglethorpe and pulled into a fantastical scheme to start a new town—Savannah— and a new colony named Georgia in America. Tom Ellis travels across the Atlantic with the first founders and fights to protect the colony from a dramatic scheme to undermine it.
Yamacraw Bluff is a fully panoramic historical novel capturing the sights, scenes, and experiences of the founders, while telling the untold story of loss, internecine conflict, and revenge.

Yamacraw Bluff is a masterful blend of historical accuracy and gripping storytelling, bringing colonial America to life in a way that feels both immersive and deeply personal.  

Set against the backdrop of Savannah’s founding, the novel follows Tom Ellis—a debtor whose fate is unexpectedly intertwined with James Oglethorpe, the visionary behind Georgia’s settlement. Through Ellis’s eyes, readers experience the hardships, ambition, and intrigue that shaped the colony’s early days. The novel doesn’t just recount history; it breathes life into it, capturing the sights, sounds, and struggles of the era with remarkable detail.  

 

Pittaway’s prose is accessible yet richly layered, making complex historical events digestible without sacrificing depth. The pacing is engaging, the characters compelling, and the historical insights meticulously researched. What sets Yamacraw Bluff apart is its ability to humanize history, showing the personal stakes behind grand events.  

 

For lovers of historical fiction, this is a must-read—a novel that educates, entertains, and immerses in equal measure. Pittaway has crafted a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving readers with a newfound appreciation for the untold stories of America’s colonial past.