Moses McKenzie's debut novel, An Olive Grove in Ends, is set in Bristol, UK, a port city in southwest England, about 120 miles due west of London.

The Romans built a settlement in what is now Bristol early in the 2nd century CE. The oldest castle in the area — Bristol Castle, at the confluence of the Avon and Frome Rivers — was first mentioned in print in 1088 CE, and the city was incorporated in 1155. Its location made it ideal for trading and manufacturing, and during the 14th century, Bristol imported raw wool from Ireland, wove it into cloth, and then exported it to Spain and Portugal in exchange for sherry and port. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was used as a clearinghouse for sugar, tobacco and cacao from the Americas, Jamaica and West Africa, exporting textiles, pottery and glass in return. It was a key hub for the slave trade, with somewhere around half a million Africans transported to the United States on ships originating in Bristol in the 18th ...