George Stephenson: The Remarkable Life of the Founder of the Railways

George Stephenson is the ultimate self-made man. Born in the pit village of Wylam, near Newcastle, and denied a formal education, he would go on to invent machines that transformed the world.

From the moment he began work in the mines at the age of ten, Stephenson displayed an extraordinary gift for repairing and designing machinery, eventually becoming the colliery's resident engineer. Yet he faced relentless class prejudice: Sir Humphry Davy, later President of the Royal Society, dismissed the young pitman as "a thief -- and not a clever thief." It was one of many battles Stephenson fought against the establishment.

Undeterred, he went on to build the world's first public railways -- the Stockton and Darlington in 1825 and the Liverpool-Manchester in 1830. While his groundbreaking achievements and his famous locomotive Rocket are well known, far less is remembered about the man himself.

In George Stephenson, a vivid portrait emerges of a self-taught, determined, and occasionally irascible Geordie whose vision and perseverance laid the foundations for the modern industrial world.