I'm also working slowly through the HBO series 'John Adams' which presents a rather more nuanced history of the Founding Fathers than hitherto. Patriotism tends to intrude into much American storytelling, but this series asks some more basic questions about the birth of democracy.

How true to fact it is I am not qualified to say. But it certainly feels to be based on the historical record - with the usual elisions for dramatization.

You can't be me, I'm taken