Major Andre

de Anthony Bailey

A day in the last week of September 1780: a young English officer sits in a room of a small stone house in the village of Tappan, New York, where the Continental Army under General Washington is encamped. His name is John André, and he is the acting Adjutant-General of the British Army in New York. His captors had believed him to be a merchant named John Anderson. Now they know better. The conspiracy in which General Benedict Arnold planned to surrender West Point to the British was a crucial moment in the Revolutionary War. It was also a manoeuvre that -- had it gone the other way -- could have changed the course of the war, and of history. The author presents this episode from the perspective of a leading participant, a charming and talented professional military man, amateur actor and poet who abruptly finds himself in highly charged and then tragic circumstances. He is compelled in the end by his code of conduct to rise above his own shortcomings. An individual rather than a historical figure is movingly and dramatically presented.