Abstract

326 BOOK REVIEWS their title, and the English capital remains the focus of the book throughout the majority of its pages. The importance applied to London is well justified by Taylor. It is made clear that the city was at the centre of the Mayflower’s famed journey. In fact, although distorted by history, London was the backbone of the ship’s story, not Plymouth. Yet, the London focus of the text also creates a problem for its subject matter as the ‘Britain’ of the book’s title is rarely explored (and of course Britain, as a political entity did not even exist at this time). Scotland, Wales, and for the most part, the entirety of England outside of the central southeast hub, are not discussed, despite important topics such as Scottish Presbyter- ianism arguably being of central importance to the separatist and protestant ideologies that fuelled the development of the church in New England. One further criticism concerns The Mayflower in Britain’s later chapters. Considering that Taylor frames the book around the essential context surrounding Mayflower’s journey, it is surprising that the final chapters are dedicated to Caroline, Commonwealth, Restoration and late-Stuart histories. Although interesting, this very much felt like a