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The Trade Secret
A swashbuckling, rolicking tale of espionage, intrigue, and adventure, that also smartly investigates the pervasive forces of corporations and capitalismElizabethean England is a Golden Age of trade and art; merchants and poets from across the world pack London's streets. There's a new commodity people need—oil. And young Nat Bramble knows just where to get it. Nat and Darius Nouredini, a poet in a wrestler's body, set off in search of the secret oil well under the abandoned Temple of Mithras in Persia. But their venture lights a trail of fire which will follow Nat all the way back to England, where he becomes caught in the crossfire of a war between the crown and the first corporations of London.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 10, 2013
3 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Robert Newman
71 books27 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
Robert ("Rob") Newman (born 7 July 1964) is a British stand-up comedian, author and political activist. In 1993 Newman and his then comedy partner David Baddiel became the first comedians to play and sell out the 12,000-seat Wembley Arena in London. He was born to a Greek Cypriot father and British mother.
Newman's first speaking appearance was with Third World First (now known as People and Planet), the student political organisation. In addition to comedy and writing, he has also worked as a paperboy in Whitwell, Hertfordshire, farmhand, warehouse-man, house-painter, teacher, mail sorter, social worker, mover, and broadcaster.
Robert ("Rob") Newman (born 7 July 1964) is a British stand-up comedian, author and political activist. In 1993 Newman and his then comedy partner David Baddiel became the first comedians to play and sell out the 12,000-seat Wembley Arena in London. He was born to a Greek Cypriot father and British mother.
Newman's first speaking appearance was with Third World First (now known as People and Planet), the student political organisation. In addition to comedy and writing, he has also worked as a paperboy in Whitwell, Hertfordshire, farmhand, warehouse-man, house-painter, teacher, mail sorter, social worker, mover, and broadcaster.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 29, 2014
I started this biased towards Rob Newman (yes, that Rob Newman, the sexy one from The Mary Whitehouse Experience, as probably only British comedy fans in their 30's & 40's will remember)... but whilst the book's not bad when it's being a ripping historical adventure yarn - and it has the best of intentions politically - I wasn't half so impressed as I wanted to be.
Unlike most fiction I read, The Trade Secret has an almost didactic aim: to show the beginnings of global capitalism and oil dependence, from an anti-capitalist perspective. (Newman's previous book The Fountain at the Centre of the World - which I haven't read - was about "late capitalism".) You might, then, expect sledgehammer politics ... They weren't exactly obscure (pondering on the discovery that the Mayflower was once a slave ship; well-meaning people finding they've bought into the wrong side; or a collective of small traders banding together) but a lot of this is simply an adventure story about two lads trying to make their way in the early modern world, and getting into lots of coincidence-fuelled scrapes along the way.
The Trade Secret might perhaps work best read on public transport or when a bit tired; there are lots of nice short chapters, it's not hard work and there's probably more fun to be had here without close concentration. There are some very nice paragraphs but for the most part I was often reminded of the title of a blog post I read a while ago, "Reliable sorts who get the story told" (actually about the Granta Best Young British Novelists).
If you're pedantic about history, it's a frustrating book. A lot of research has evidently gone into this in the detail about early modern Persia, Venice & London. But there are some errors: e.g. a seventeenth century opium addict couldn't have had trackmarks as hypodermics weren't invented yet (also would anyone really mistake healed burn scars for trackmarks?); a conversational reference to "the laws of physics"; and one that Newman's Soho Jarvis character probably wouldn't have got wrong, bastinado would involve an assault on the feet and not about the head.
More than that sort of point of fact, sometimes the book just doesn't feel historical in ways such as "would people have actually thought that then?", or characters' unlikely lifestyles. One of the heroes has a love interest, Gol, who seems to have been transposed from a twentieth-century set story about a fickle, feisty, hard-to-get girl who's in a band. She seemed so unlikely that I did a bit of reading about women in the Safavid empire; there were bands of female musicians but they were courtesans, not virginal lower-middle-class girls living with their parents whilst slowly deciding who to marry. I'm sure the inclusion of this character has the best of intentions- after all this is a left-wing political novel - she's a woman with a strong sense of agency and high standards, but historical inaccuracy is a very blunt way of trying to show that. The scenes in Persia were often easier to read as a fantasy novel than a historical one, and a scene at a dance felt more like a rave or modern house party. Yet there are other scenes, especially those in London, which use more archaic language and have more of a sense of history.
I've been thinking it might be satisfying if historical fiction had demarcations like hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi - with the former supposed to be so theoretically accurate that geeks would struggle to pick holes in it. But if there were, The Trade Secret would be neither one nor t'other.
This very pickiness (not big, not clever, not even enjoyable to do) is why I don't read much historical fiction now. I used to devour the stuff when I was a kid though - and this book, with its two young heroes, does have a similar feel, and a similar sense of fun punctuated by episodes of relative boredom, to a lot of those old children's books.
I haven't actually read one of Newman's books since I was a fangirl who bought Dependence Day as soon as it was released in 1994 so haven't really got anything to compare this one with. It does make me think that writing a really good novel must be even harder than it looks: he's a clever, funny guy but this book, whilst not bad lacks the spark of brilliance his comedy sometimes had. You couldn't accuse it of being overly serious, for thankfully it isn't yet more lyrical realism, but equally it's not an outright comic novel.
Someone like me would probably be happier reading factual history to find out about the subjects here, but for those who aren't incredibly picky about historical accuracy or writing style, this will be a pretty decent book.
Unlike most fiction I read, The Trade Secret has an almost didactic aim: to show the beginnings of global capitalism and oil dependence, from an anti-capitalist perspective. (Newman's previous book The Fountain at the Centre of the World - which I haven't read - was about "late capitalism".) You might, then, expect sledgehammer politics ... They weren't exactly obscure (pondering on the discovery that the Mayflower was once a slave ship; well-meaning people finding they've bought into the wrong side; or a collective of small traders banding together) but a lot of this is simply an adventure story about two lads trying to make their way in the early modern world, and getting into lots of coincidence-fuelled scrapes along the way.
The Trade Secret might perhaps work best read on public transport or when a bit tired; there are lots of nice short chapters, it's not hard work and there's probably more fun to be had here without close concentration. There are some very nice paragraphs but for the most part I was often reminded of the title of a blog post I read a while ago, "Reliable sorts who get the story told" (actually about the Granta Best Young British Novelists).
If you're pedantic about history, it's a frustrating book. A lot of research has evidently gone into this in the detail about early modern Persia, Venice & London. But there are some errors: e.g. a seventeenth century opium addict couldn't have had trackmarks as hypodermics weren't invented yet (also would anyone really mistake healed burn scars for trackmarks?); a conversational reference to "the laws of physics"; and one that Newman's Soho Jarvis character probably wouldn't have got wrong, bastinado would involve an assault on the feet and not about the head.
More than that sort of point of fact, sometimes the book just doesn't feel historical in ways such as "would people have actually thought that then?", or characters' unlikely lifestyles. One of the heroes has a love interest, Gol, who seems to have been transposed from a twentieth-century set story about a fickle, feisty, hard-to-get girl who's in a band. She seemed so unlikely that I did a bit of reading about women in the Safavid empire; there were bands of female musicians but they were courtesans, not virginal lower-middle-class girls living with their parents whilst slowly deciding who to marry. I'm sure the inclusion of this character has the best of intentions- after all this is a left-wing political novel - she's a woman with a strong sense of agency and high standards, but historical inaccuracy is a very blunt way of trying to show that. The scenes in Persia were often easier to read as a fantasy novel than a historical one, and a scene at a dance felt more like a rave or modern house party. Yet there are other scenes, especially those in London, which use more archaic language and have more of a sense of history.
I've been thinking it might be satisfying if historical fiction had demarcations like hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi - with the former supposed to be so theoretically accurate that geeks would struggle to pick holes in it. But if there were, The Trade Secret would be neither one nor t'other.
This very pickiness (not big, not clever, not even enjoyable to do) is why I don't read much historical fiction now. I used to devour the stuff when I was a kid though - and this book, with its two young heroes, does have a similar feel, and a similar sense of fun punctuated by episodes of relative boredom, to a lot of those old children's books.
I haven't actually read one of Newman's books since I was a fangirl who bought Dependence Day as soon as it was released in 1994 so haven't really got anything to compare this one with. It does make me think that writing a really good novel must be even harder than it looks: he's a clever, funny guy but this book, whilst not bad lacks the spark of brilliance his comedy sometimes had. You couldn't accuse it of being overly serious, for thankfully it isn't yet more lyrical realism, but equally it's not an outright comic novel.
Someone like me would probably be happier reading factual history to find out about the subjects here, but for those who aren't incredibly picky about historical accuracy or writing style, this will be a pretty decent book.
April 9, 2014
One of those books that hide a history lesson with facts that fascinate you, inside a compelling story. How oil was first extracted and used in the Middle East before the West even knew of its existance, I found that fascinating. Because it is not explained in your average HIstory text book, how this 'oil' ever turned up in the big capitalist economy.
The book even starts to explain how big capitalism germinated.
If I were a history teacher, this would be in the reading list of compulsory books for my secondary school students.
The book even starts to explain how big capitalism germinated.
If I were a history teacher, this would be in the reading list of compulsory books for my secondary school students.
August 23, 2021
Excellent story set in Elizabethan times, full of quests which have strange pathways to follow. Enjoyable read, not wanting to put down as needing to find out what happens next. Brilliant writing in a descriptive way could almost be there.
May 16, 2015
Quote:
If you saw Robert Newman’s Brief History of Oil stand-up you know how this story ends; but here he returns to the dawn of what he considers to be the driving force of modern history: oil, and England’s willingness to do whatever is needed to control it.
The story begins in the final years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, with the Levant Company, in many ways the precursor of the modern corporation, holding the monopoly to all English trade with Turkey and the Levant. In Persia, Sir Anthony Sherley is playing the role of ambassador in the court of the Shah, and his seventeen year old servant, Nat Bramble, is about to desert Shirley’s service to set off on a quest for a hidden oil field located under an ancient temple of Mithras.
The book is dominated by the sense that ‘it takes a lot of work by some dedicated men to make this world unjust’. As a campaigning member of the UK’s Green Party, Newman’s interest in the subject is heavily political and largely disapproving. He is too good a novelist, though, to let the drama of the markets escape him. The book is filled with the romance of business and the tantalising possibility of fortunes to be made by whoever can first supply the market’s demands.
Never far away from the excitement, there is a melancholy feeling of the world being out of kilter; of the fun of the adventure always being marred by the evil in man’s nature, brought out by the love of money.
Quote:
Goodness, innocence and honest ambition are constantly at the mercy of the schemes of evil men, particularly the historically accurate but altogether implausible Sherley brothers, whose adventures, retold in the book, make the authors point far better than fiction could. There is a treasure trove of historical anecdotes and period details. The exotic sights of the Persian bazaar are revelled in, but the characters always remain sympathetic.
As a novel, The Trade Secret is less successful than his previous book, The Fountain at the Centre of the World (set in the lead up to the Seattle World Trade protests of 1999) where the pitch black humour of the characters matched the backdrop perfectly. Here, the central plot is more cheerful, and it jars slightly with the grimness of its setting. That said, there is a lot to enjoy, especially for fans of historical fiction, and anyone who enjoyed The Fountain at the Centre of the World would enjoy this too.
In some ways, the drama of the story is let down by the facts it relates. There can be no final showdown with the baddies, and no chance for good to definitively triumph over evil. The Levant Company did very well out of the slave trade, and the people involved died wealthy and content. Progress only came much later and, Newman certainly believes, has yet to fully arrive.
If you saw Robert Newman’s Brief History of Oil stand-up you know how this story ends; but here he returns to the dawn of what he considers to be the driving force of modern history: oil, and England’s willingness to do whatever is needed to control it.
The story begins in the final years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, with the Levant Company, in many ways the precursor of the modern corporation, holding the monopoly to all English trade with Turkey and the Levant. In Persia, Sir Anthony Sherley is playing the role of ambassador in the court of the Shah, and his seventeen year old servant, Nat Bramble, is about to desert Shirley’s service to set off on a quest for a hidden oil field located under an ancient temple of Mithras.
The book is dominated by the sense that ‘it takes a lot of work by some dedicated men to make this world unjust’. As a campaigning member of the UK’s Green Party, Newman’s interest in the subject is heavily political and largely disapproving. He is too good a novelist, though, to let the drama of the markets escape him. The book is filled with the romance of business and the tantalising possibility of fortunes to be made by whoever can first supply the market’s demands.
Never far away from the excitement, there is a melancholy feeling of the world being out of kilter; of the fun of the adventure always being marred by the evil in man’s nature, brought out by the love of money.
Quote:
Goodness, innocence and honest ambition are constantly at the mercy of the schemes of evil men, particularly the historically accurate but altogether implausible Sherley brothers, whose adventures, retold in the book, make the authors point far better than fiction could. There is a treasure trove of historical anecdotes and period details. The exotic sights of the Persian bazaar are revelled in, but the characters always remain sympathetic.
As a novel, The Trade Secret is less successful than his previous book, The Fountain at the Centre of the World (set in the lead up to the Seattle World Trade protests of 1999) where the pitch black humour of the characters matched the backdrop perfectly. Here, the central plot is more cheerful, and it jars slightly with the grimness of its setting. That said, there is a lot to enjoy, especially for fans of historical fiction, and anyone who enjoyed The Fountain at the Centre of the World would enjoy this too.
In some ways, the drama of the story is let down by the facts it relates. There can be no final showdown with the baddies, and no chance for good to definitively triumph over evil. The Levant Company did very well out of the slave trade, and the people involved died wealthy and content. Progress only came much later and, Newman certainly believes, has yet to fully arrive.
June 1, 2013
Take-home message: this is a wonderful novel.
It begins in Isfahan, Persia, at the end of the 16th century. Nat Bramble is a downtrodden youth in the service of the ruthless opportunist Sir Anthony Sherley. Bungling a dangerous speculation with his master's money, Nat throws caution to the wind and embarks on an expedition to find oil, dreamed up by his new friend, the lovestruck poet Darius Nouredini. Their bold adventure sets in train a sprawling journey across Europe and through the birth-pangs of a British Empire built on far-flung commerce of dubious morality.
The tale is rich in the authentic details of its setting, yet wears its research lightly: I was particularly charmed to learn of the custom by which wedding musicians were paid - you'll have to read it to find out! The writing is fine indeed, but style does not overpower the story. In Newman's previous (also excellent) novel The Fountain At The Centre Of The World, the prose was startlingly sharp but denser: I found this a much smoother, more accessible read, and couldn't stop turning the pages. An example of this expressive, intelligent, yet fluid writing: Darius flounders in arguing with his mother:
The endlessly colourful adventures at length separate the lifelines of Nat and Darius, and I wondered if this might weaken the ending; yet the closing page reconnects the two strands with immaculate delicacy. Here and elsewhere I was reminded of the respectful elegance of Guy Gavriel Kay's books. The Trade Secret is a history lesson, a radical course in economics, a travelogue, a comedy, a romance and an adventure. If that's not a bargain well made, I don't know what is!
It begins in Isfahan, Persia, at the end of the 16th century. Nat Bramble is a downtrodden youth in the service of the ruthless opportunist Sir Anthony Sherley. Bungling a dangerous speculation with his master's money, Nat throws caution to the wind and embarks on an expedition to find oil, dreamed up by his new friend, the lovestruck poet Darius Nouredini. Their bold adventure sets in train a sprawling journey across Europe and through the birth-pangs of a British Empire built on far-flung commerce of dubious morality.
The tale is rich in the authentic details of its setting, yet wears its research lightly: I was particularly charmed to learn of the custom by which wedding musicians were paid - you'll have to read it to find out! The writing is fine indeed, but style does not overpower the story. In Newman's previous (also excellent) novel The Fountain At The Centre Of The World, the prose was startlingly sharp but denser: I found this a much smoother, more accessible read, and couldn't stop turning the pages. An example of this expressive, intelligent, yet fluid writing: Darius flounders in arguing with his mother:
Home was the place where Darius hardly knew himself. When he wasn't in this airless cavern he could clearly describe the full horror of this violation, but here he lost all his powers of persuasion. Even when he did place a solid gold argument in the family's crooked scales it somehow carried less weight than his mother's brassy rebuttal.Note the working in of mercantile metaphors: although it is fascination with the characters that draws us along, this book is actually a serious (though often funny) meditation on trade. The 'secret' of the title is spelled out at one point; but there is another unspoken one that we infuse from the tale just as Nat inhales qaveh fumes, to do with trade as the manifestation of mutual trust between individuals, and not as an end in itself. Again and again, worlds turn on the carrying of messages to engender such trust, via pigeons and poetry; for it is fragile and not easily achieved.
The endlessly colourful adventures at length separate the lifelines of Nat and Darius, and I wondered if this might weaken the ending; yet the closing page reconnects the two strands with immaculate delicacy. Here and elsewhere I was reminded of the respectful elegance of Guy Gavriel Kay's books. The Trade Secret is a history lesson, a radical course in economics, a travelogue, a comedy, a romance and an adventure. If that's not a bargain well made, I don't know what is!
July 18, 2013
Set in the dying days of the seventeenth century: James I is on the throne, the first seeds of British imperialism are being sown, with the Levant Company - the original bully-boys of embryonic capitalism – already influencing British foreign policy to their own nefarious ends, and lowly Nat Bramble, ‘named after the bush he'd been whelped under’, has just lost his master’s (the delightfully Dick darstardleyish Sir Anthony Sherley, who seems to have been every bit the roguish chancer Newman makes him) money in some ill-fated speculation on the Persian money market. In a desperate attempt to win back the lost cash and save his neck, Nat throws in his lot with an impoverished poet, Darius Nouredini, in an expedition to bring oil to the fuel-starved city of Isfahan and make their fortune. It doesn’t end well for Nat, but fate sends him spiralling on a personal journey that has him well on the way to a sparkling career in commodities, as the novel ends.
A thoroughly improbable, very enjoyable tale, well seeded with Newman’s - now trademark - historical factoids and more than a little bit of politics. Less overtly political, and consequently, much more enjoyable, than his previous novel, The Fountain at the Centre of the World, The Trade Secret is set against a backdrop of pirates and slavers, the beginning of the oil and coffee trade, and early pigeon fanciers. It’s not a literary masterpiece and the politics do get in the way at times, but it is a rollicking good and easy read, well worth a few hours of your time.
A thoroughly improbable, very enjoyable tale, well seeded with Newman’s - now trademark - historical factoids and more than a little bit of politics. Less overtly political, and consequently, much more enjoyable, than his previous novel, The Fountain at the Centre of the World, The Trade Secret is set against a backdrop of pirates and slavers, the beginning of the oil and coffee trade, and early pigeon fanciers. It’s not a literary masterpiece and the politics do get in the way at times, but it is a rollicking good and easy read, well worth a few hours of your time.
October 28, 2014
If there is one fact about the craft of fiction that's harder to dispute than any other, it's this: That it's story and characters that make a work of fiction fly. And The Trade Secret proves this in spades. Sure, lucid writing, good sex scenes, clever dialog and stirring wit might help, but when it comes down to it that's all incidental. All you need to do is take two or more people who the reader wants to spend time with, and get them to do some interesting stuff, and there's your classic. Not, one hastens to add, that this book is devoid of other virtues... it's just that one gets the impression that they are just icing on the cake.
Newman's hero, Nat Bramble ("named after the bush he was whelped under") having lost his Master's money by an ill-advised bout of commodity trading, sets out to redeem his fortune with his new friend, Darius, the overweight, lovelorn poet, desperate to win the love of Gol, his unobtainable desire. These are three of the most entertaining characters ever to step onto a page, and right from the start (as the two boys attempt a hopeless quest to bring oil back to the city) until the final page, you'll keep turning, waiting to see what happens to them all next.
And then it all gets very complicated indeed, with internal politics in Britain and the Middle East, lots of spying and peeking and pigeon shit everywhere. Really, it'd be a shame to spoil this one. Get out and meet Nat Bramble - you'll never regret it.
Newman's hero, Nat Bramble ("named after the bush he was whelped under") having lost his Master's money by an ill-advised bout of commodity trading, sets out to redeem his fortune with his new friend, Darius, the overweight, lovelorn poet, desperate to win the love of Gol, his unobtainable desire. These are three of the most entertaining characters ever to step onto a page, and right from the start (as the two boys attempt a hopeless quest to bring oil back to the city) until the final page, you'll keep turning, waiting to see what happens to them all next.
And then it all gets very complicated indeed, with internal politics in Britain and the Middle East, lots of spying and peeking and pigeon shit everywhere. Really, it'd be a shame to spoil this one. Get out and meet Nat Bramble - you'll never regret it.
April 17, 2013
A spellbinding tale of how Nat Bramble, a young English servant boy, finding himself in Isfahan in 1599, begins his long struggle to live a decent life. In the process, he makes friends with Darius Nouredini, a poet, who is in love with a young woman. Between them, they manage to get caught up in a war between Shah Abbas, the Persian King and the Ottoman Turks, bring oil from an abandoned temple of the god Mithras to Isfahan and then go their separate ways. Nat finds himself involved in the vicious dispute between the Levant Company and the ruined pirate Sir Thomas Sherley and his unlikeable brothers, and manages to introduce coffee to England. This is the kind of swashbuckling tale that will leave you gasping to turn the page to find out what happens next. It is also a beautifully written story that uses excitement and adventure to provide an understanding of the human psyche at its worst and at its best.
Enjoy every minute of your read - truly a book that you will not want to put down.
Enjoy every minute of your read - truly a book that you will not want to put down.
February 3, 2016
Woven around foundations of fact, this fantastic tale about the emergence of capitalism and the ‘myth’ of free trade, is quirky, poetic and (thankfully) ultimately uplifting. Our hero, the sometimes bumbling but always balanced Nat Bramble, bounces between Persia, Spain and London. Along the way he faces impossible decisions, compromises, horrific brutality and the harsh realities of the Elizabethan class system.
He is a man of contradictions, an enthusiastic but fearful entrepreneur, full of passion and romance yet he almost reluctantly falls in love. He successfully introduces London to coffee but fails to leverage the opportunity to light up London with lamp oil or spark an interest in carrier pigeons.
He is a man of contradictions, an enthusiastic but fearful entrepreneur, full of passion and romance yet he almost reluctantly falls in love. He successfully introduces London to coffee but fails to leverage the opportunity to light up London with lamp oil or spark an interest in carrier pigeons.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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