With Carole Divall

Doors open at 6:30pm.
All are welcome to attend: there is no charge for entry.

THOMAS PAINE (1737 -1809): AN OVERVIEW OF HIS LIFE.

Thomas PAINE was born the son of a Quaker father and Anglican mother. He began work with his father who was a staymaker and soon became dissatisfied with his job. He eventually became an Excise Officer, where he worked for a time in Grantham. He saw many faults in the way the Excise operated and was dismissed from his post for publishing a document arguing for the raising of pay to reduce corruption in the service. He became a dangerous radical and pamphleteer: his works include ‘The Rights of Man’, ‘The Age of Reason’ and ‘Common Sense’. The talk includes an overview of his radicalism and the part he played in the two great revolutions of the 18^th Century, the American and the French where he had a narrow escape from an invitation to Madame Guillotine. He died in relative obscurity, in New York, in 1809.