1. Arrival

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746.

After a long voyage from London, Mr Smith is anxious to disembark. His business is both pressing and mysterious.

Francis Spufford’s novel abridged in ten parts.

One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition.

He has an order for £1,000 in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Read by Jamie Parker

Francis explains: "Golden Hill is… written like a novel from the 18th century. So the story… is as hectically stuffed with events as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.”

Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Producer: Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2017.