Available post-free in the UK from the publisher’s website, www.lifeisamazing.co.uk.

John Pounds of Portsmouth was famous in the 19th Century. His life, dedicated to teaching, feeding and clothing the poorest children from the most wretched parts of Portsmouth sparked a revolution in the education of the poor.

Countless column-inches were dedicated to him in newspapers, his name was invoked by education reformers, his example led to tens of thousands of impoverished children being educated in Ragged Schools throughout Britain - and strangely, few of those who drew inspiration from him ever met him.

Reverend Henry Hawkes of the Unitarian Church, Portsmouth, did. This book is the only firsthand account of the life of John Pounds, who inspired profound social changed in Victorian Britain.

Published to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth, this new edition of Recollections of John Pounds contains a foreword by Erica Davies, Director of The Ragged School Museum, and numerous extracts from newspapers of the day.

It gives a glimpse of the squalor and depravity in the alleys and courts behind the houses along Portsmouth’s wealthy High Street, and shows just why John Pounds’s work was so important in changing lives and offering hope to the most neglected in society.

This book also contains additional articles compiled by editor Matt Wingett, showing how, in the two decades after his death, Pounds’ name became increasingly used to influence the UK’s advance toward universal state education. Includes extracts from The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Times and an article on the influence of Ragged Schools on poor children by another son of Portsmouth, Charles Dickens.