despontin

Bristol 1876, and the former Chartist leader John Frost, now 92, is anxious to record his life, but his eyesight is failing. The task is left to his daughter Anne, who sifts through her father’s journals, letters, pamphlets and contemporary newspaper reports to unravel the details of his extraordinary odyssey.

Born in a dockside public house, radicalised in London, Frost leads the Welsh Chartists in the Newport uprising of 1839 and is subsequently tried for treason and transported to Van Diemen’s Land. Fifteen years later, he sails to San Francisco then crosses the Wild West to New York before his pardon brings him home to a hero’s welcome.

Now an old man, Frost lives a reclusive life, with Anne his sole companion. As she weaves his tale, she begins to understand the sacrifices her father made, the true price he paid for his radical ideals. But she also recalls poignantly the impact his actions had on the family he left behind.