Showing Thomas Paine in Lewes - 1768-1774 by Colin Brent / Deborah Gage / Paul Myles

Despite its brevity, it has only fifty-eight pages, this book incorporates important new material derived from the largely unpublished research of the late George Hindmarch into the reasons why Paine embarked on writing his first recorded work, The Case of the Officers of Excise. This gives it an importance out of all proportion to its size. Robert Morrell, M.B.E. Editor, Journal of Radical History of the Thomas Paine Society. New knowledge about Thomas Paine in England before his departure to America is revealed. This represents a paradigm shift in pre American Paine research at the same time as describing a lively 18c Lewes and rich character accounts. Paine's nature is revealed through rigorous research of his career as an officer of excise. Paine spoke for the excisemen, including his superiors, with one voice to every member of both houses of Parliament, every exciseman and important businessmen of the day. His first pamphlet written in Lewes in 1772 ' The Case of the Officers of Excise' was the first nationwide unionisation in the United Kingdom and foreshadowed the modern lobbying system of green and white papers. Deborah Gage reveals insights to General Thomas Gage, the Commander in Chief of the British forces on the other side to Thomas Paine, which show that the British forces, as well as the colonists, suffered from King George III insensate policies. This is also a beautiful book if images showing a rare portrait of Paine painted in London in 1790, landscapes of Lewes in 1768, the year Paine rode into Lewes, by Dominic Serres, and an image of Clio Rickman by Hazlitt.This book was forged in the preparations for the 200th anniversary of Thomas Paine's life and shows Paine's debt, and possibly America's developmental debt to the Town of Lewes