Captured by Napoleon’s forces off the coast at Brighton in the year of Trafalgar, the fourteen year old Scot, Alexander Stewart, survived ten years in often appalling conditions in French prisons. He stood up to the bullies, taught himself French and discovered Voltaire. He made four attempts to escape before returning to England where he became an inspirational Congregational minister, who played a full part in the Evangelical revival. The Nonconformists returned from the margins of society to help transform the political and moral landscape of the nation.

In two seismic years, the landed classes lost their virtual monopoly of power and slavery was abolished in the British Empire. Spearheaded by preachers such as Stewart and educators such as the Anglican Thomas Arnold, the political nation underwent a moral revolution, asking the question of what ought we to do rather than what do we want to do.

Simon Williams, is the great-great-grandson of Alexander Stewart. He has drawn on the manuscript written by Stewart for his children to provide an exciting, new perspective on nineteenth century British history.