1. Daniel Defoe: 1660-1731 Son of James and Mary Foe, a merchant family committed to Puritanism (Presbyterians) Sound education at Morton’s Academy. Only Anglicans could graduate from Oxford or Cambridge. 1684: Marries Mary Tuffley, an heiress with 3,700 a year.

2. Defoe Fought briefly in the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion against James II. Bankruptcy and debt turned him towards writing. 1701: writes “The True Born Englishman” 1703: Pilloried for writing “The Shortest Way with Dissenters.”

3. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe 1719: First volume of Robinson Crusoe. A hit with lower and middle classes. Based on the experience of Alexander Selkirk. 1722: Moll Flanders. A novel that draws on his own experience in Newgate prison.

4. Crusoe: 1810 edition