Description

A story of faith, fanaticism, and the uncanny power of the imagination.

The dawn of the Victorian era: the world is changing rapidly. Poverty and the workhouse cast long shadows across rural England, and a traditional way of life is coming to an end.

In the villages and fields of Kent, the discontented find an unlikely champion in John Nicholls Tom. Calling himself ‘Sir William Courtenay’, he appears to the local magistrates and gentry as a madman, a charlatan, or a dangerous radical. But for the labouring people he is the New Messiah, come to lead them in a revolt against the forces of oppression, and to herald the end of the world.

In May 1838 Tom’s crusade ignites into bloody violence. The confrontation that follows will shock the country, and become known as the last battle ever fought on English soil.

Mad Tom’s Rising presents an alternative vision of early Victorian England, as a place of mystical religious faith, riot and disturbance, surveillance and insecurity, arson and uproar. Drawing on original sources, it reconstructs the strange and astonishing events of that time, and the lives and experiences of those forever marked by them.

Publisher Review

Ian Breckon gives us a fascinating microhistory of a brief, bloody Millenarial uprising in Kent in 1838; its leader, John Nichols Tom - Mad Tom - a charismatic, supremely persuasive man of many aliases; its tragedy, the power of fanatical belief that belies reason. * Elaine Chalus, Professor of British History, University of Liverpool * Mad Tom's Rising is mystery, history, thriller and horror - the historical record is assembled and reassembled, this way, that way, deftly and subtly, to create a meticulous, gripping, shimmering tale of an enigma. * Samantha Harvey, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital * A meticulously researched book that provides a fascinating glimpse of a lost world, this is a poignant and vivid account of a motley group of country folk who fell under the spell of a delusional conman in 1838, and followed him to disaster. * Richard Francis, author of Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, The Woman Clothed with the Sun * Ian Breckon reveals the seething undercurrents of a period of great change. In the process we are introduced to a cast worthy of one of the great novels of the age. * Stuart Flinders, author of A Very British Cult *