Mad Tom's Rising

Mad Tom's Rising recounts the strange events of 1838 in north-eastern Kent, where John Nicholls Tom, recently discharged from a lunatic asylum, posed as Sir William Courtenay, a miracle-working saviour leading local labourers in revolt amid poverty and social change at the dawn of the Victorian era.

Drawing on original sources, Ian Breckon presents an alternative vision of early Victorian England marked by mystical faith, riot, disturbance, surveillance, arson, and the last battle fought on English soil.

The book explores themes of imposture, fanaticism, and the uncanny power of imagination in a time of upheaval.