The author's great-grandfather, John Adams, was born at Annahilt, County Down, in the immediate aftermath of the United Irishmen's Rebellion of 1798, and grew up during Ireland's Great Famine. He joined the British Army as a relatively young man and was sent almost immediately to fight at Sevastopol in Crimea. From there he was posted (via Corfu) to India, where he married the author's great-grandmother, Sarah, and their children were born.

But Mixed Roots is much more than just a family history. Thanks to meticulous research it describes in great detail the social and political conditions of the times in which it is set, and how ordinary people were affected and shaped by these. The backdrop to everyday life, both in Ireland and India, was invariably bleak: replete with poverty, famine, disease, religious and political tensions, discrimination, violence, institutional racism, and colonial supremacism and suppression,

A multi-exampled study of colonialism, and how it affected native peoples - in this case, those of Ireland and India - lies at the heart of Mixed Roots. And colonialism's attendant religious and cultural "proselytising" does not escape the book's attention. Most specifically, the attempts by colonisers to destroy and recast native religion(s) and culture(s) in their own image. Ostensibly for the benefit of local inhabitants, wholly regardless of the damage and human misery that invariably resulted.

The author's family history bears sad testament to much of the above.

Reviews:

"...his [Adams'] book, Mixed Roots, is another valuable contribution by him to our search for lasting peace. In it he turns to family history - an exploration back in time. What is identity? What makes us? What is important? What is the future?," Brian Rowan
Brian Rowan is a former BBC Northern Ireland correspondent, and an author on the peace process

"...this book encapsulates the wonder of how our individual and collective history is woven not just through the fabric of this country, but often through threads that stretch across the world - binding events and stories and the direction of life itself. Through painstaking research, and crafted writing, David Adams has written a gem.
Mixed Roots demonstrates that the history of family is happenstance and we all have the power to choose our own direction." Máiría Cahill
Máiría Cahill is an author, columnist, commentator, and survivor

"... This isn't just an Adams family story, and it isn't just history; it is a call to deep reflection on how power was abused, and continues to be abused, through class, race, religion, perceived politics... . And for genuine reflection by all the people of Ireland on how we might move beyond our societal divisions." Malachi O'Doherty
Malachi O'Doherty is an author, commentator and journalist

"In Mixed Roots, David Adams tells the story of his paternal ancestors, and, in doing so, casts a highly critical eye over British colonialism, and specifically how it affected the peoples of Ireland and India. There are no happy tales in this book, yet it is hugely uplifting. Seldom in this part of the world is historical narrative untethered from the diktat of community allegiance. David Adams does exactly that. One can only hope that it catches on." Suzanne Breen
Suzanne Breen is Political Editor of the Belfast Telegraph