The Adventures of Toby Wey

Set in the rip-roaring world of pre-Victorian nineteenth century Britain, "The Adventures of Toby Wey" tells the story of a young farm-boy who took on the British ruling class and won. When his father is sentenced to be transported to Australia for protesting at the theft of the commons by the local squire, Toby manages to get the squire's daughter Miranda onside in a valiant bid to save his family. Then, orphaned and alone, he embarks on an extraordinary odyssey through the lush British countryside of 1820's, finding his way into a mysterious "lost domain" estate, becoming the assistant to a romantic canal surveyor, talking his way into one of Britain's great public schools, and becoming the operator of a chess-playing mechanical Turk. Later, in London, he will encounter a lonely waif named Charles Dickens, then aged twelve, who has been consigned to a factory because of his father's bankruptcy - and come up with an ingenious plan to get the fledgling author back on the road to greatness. After which he encounters two of the giants of the era, George and Robert Stephenson, helps them create the world's first steam railroad and begins his own rise to greatness - only to find the past catching up with him. "The Adventures of Toby Wey" is history as it ought to have been: a roller-coaster ride through the beginnings of the modern era in the company of an engaging young man of unrivalled courage and extraordinary goodness.