"The Fortunes of Francis Barber" by Michael Brudock

This was excellent – a classic example of a biography of a minor figure through whose life an author is able to enlighten readers about a whole age.

Francis Barber a black man who was born on a Jamaican sugar plantation some time in the 1740s and was thus enslaved from birth. Aged about ten years old he was brought to England by his owner – one Colonel Bathurst when he sold-up in the Caribbean. His life story would have remained unknown and obscure had he then not gone to live with Samuel Johnson (a friend of Colonel Bathurst’s son) and become a member of his eclectic household of eccentric misfits.

Dr Johnson paid for his education and treated him a bit like the son he never had. Francis spent some time away working for an apothecary and at sea, but for most of the subsequent thirty-five years he was effectively Johnson’s manservant and trusted companion. He inherited most of the estate in the 1780s and settled in Lichfield, going on to assist James Boswell in the writing of his huge and great biography / memoir of Samuel Johnson.

Michael Bundock has pieced together from all manner of sources this account of Francis Barber’s remarkable life and has written a highly readable and fascinating life story. Of course, any book featuring Samuel Johnson in a major role is going to be entertaining, and this one is no exception in that regard.

But it is also really interesting on the experiences of black people living in eighteenth century Britain more generally, of whom there were many more than we tend to imagine. A highly enjoyable read.