King of Sunlight, The [Hardcover]

Adam Macqueen has accomplished an affectionate portrait that brings this extraordinary character fully to life in joyously funny detail.

A journey through the life of one of Britain's most successful businessmen and most eccentric Victorian philanthropists.

William Hesketh Lever – soap-boiler, social reformer, MP, tribal chieftain, multi-millionaire and Lord of the Western Isles – was one of the most extraordinary men ever to leave his mark on Britain. Beliefs far ahead of their times – the welfare state, votes for women, workers’ rights – jostled in his mind with ideas that were fantastically bonkers – the world's problems could be solved by moving populations from country to country, ballroom dancing could save the soul and the only healthy way to sleep was outdoors in the wind and the rain. Adam Macqueen traces Lever's footsteps from his humble Bolton boyhood to a business empire that straddled the world, visiting the homes and model towns from the Mersey to the Congo that still bear the mark – and often the name – of William Lever. It is a hilarious and touching journey that shines a spotlight on a world and a set of beliefs long gone, and asks several vital questions: where does philanthropy stop and social engineering begin? Is it right for an employer to dictate how his workers spend their weekends and hire private detectives to make sure they are doing it properly? Are the length of a lawn and the curve of a bannister of vital importance to the great scheme of things? And why would a multi-millionaire with half a dozen homes and property on four continents chose to sleep on the roof?

Adam Macqueen has at various points in his career cleaned toilets, packed mail-order baldness cures, led canoeing holidays for teenage drug addicts, toured Europe in the worst production of Richard II in history and been one of those people answering the phones in the background during Watchdog, before settling on journalism as a profession. He has written for a number of newspapers and magazines, edited the Big Issue, and currently works for Private Eye. He is currently working as a freelance feature writer and appears regularly on Sky television.