WHEN JAMES AITKEN, alias James Boswell, alias John the Painter, set fire to the royal dockyards during the 18th century, his crimes shocked the country.
They were unprecedented in their scale, and led to a nationwide manhunt to find a man who single-handedly imperilled Britain's war effort against the Americans.
But for one who perpetrated such serious acts, he was as criminally inept as he was criminal.
Looking for lessons from history is clearly on Warner's agenda. She notes that the society that spawned the first terrorist constricted after his attack, and began to imprison foreigners without trial and suspend habeus corpus. It is also notable that with little planning, or cunning, a man with a match and some fuel in a world made of wood came so close to destroying the greatest navy in the world.
Her book is a golden nugget of history, awash with contemporary parallels, and Warner tells the story with charm and wit.
John The Painter: The First Modern Terrorist by Jessica Warner is published by Profile Books, priced £15.99.
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