Charles Ignatius Sancho was a real person who lived in the eighteenth century, and the author has taken the few details known about his life and turned them into a work of fiction. According to the Preface, Sancho was 'a lucky African orphan, who despite being born in abject slavery, rose to become a leading light of the early abolitionist movement.' The content of the book comprises of Sancho's diary pages written for his son Billy, and he really did have an extraordinary life for a black person living in London at that time. He became so well known that he had his portrait painted by Gainsborough, and in addition to his campaign for the abolition of slavery, he also composed and played music and had his writing published. He was married to Anne Osborne and they had eight children, although not all survived to adulthood. Anne doesn't appear in the book until the second half, but their exchange of letters while she is attending to a sick relative on a sugar plan...