The Life of William Nicholson, 1753-1815: A Memoir of Enlightenment, Commerce, Politics, Arts & Science

Sue Durrell writes extensively on marketing for the legal profession and has edited thousands of legal articles. She also writes occasionally on hiking and fly-fishing. Based in Staffordshire, she became interested in Nicholson via his connections with Josiah Wedgwood `the father of marketing' and his work as an early patent agent. Sue created the acclaimed website www.nicholsonsjournal.com and she is the author of a biography of William Nicholson due to be published in November 2018. Frank James is Professor of the History of Science at UCL and the Royal Institution where he is also Head of Collections. William Nicholson Jnr (1789 - 1874) 'I William Nicholson now in my eightieth year, whose father William Nicholson died fifty-three years ago, have seen and heard a great deal of what passed in my father's lifetime among the most distinguished philosophers of those days. Being now out of business and a comparatively idle man; I think good to record what I do know and like Marco Polo 'Put down the things that I have seen only' and whether I am roasted or let alone by those awful reviewers, I shall even offer a copy to a bookseller, who if he likes to risk his money, I will risk the roasting. For though I feel and well know that I have no pretensions to rank with the great in the world of science, yet 'In nature's infinite book of science a little I can read'!

Written in 1868, the publication of this memoir (now in the Bodleian Library) acts as prelude to a comprehensive biography of the extraordinary William Nicholson, author, inventor, patent agent and civil engineer, published later in 2018. This is a memoir of enlightenment, commerce, politics, arts and science, in an age of revolution.