John Milton was born in 1608 to a century of revolution — in religion, politics, print, science and the arts.  By the time he died, in 1674, Britain had experienced the rule of three Stuart monarchs, a few short-lived experiments in republican government, and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, as well as civil war.

Unusually for a writer, Milton was at the centre of this turbulent period.  Having postponed his early poetic ambitions to support the republican cause, he served as Cromwell’s Secretary for Foreign Tongues (and unofficial spin doctor).

The political pamphlets he wrote during these years have had a strong influence on our current parliamentary documentary – as well as providing inspiration to the Founding Fathers of America and for the French Revolution.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy, in 1660, now blind, politically exiled – and lucky to escape with his life – Milton returned to his first love, poetry.  His greatest work, Paradise Lost, was published in 1667 and immediately hailed by the poet John Dryden, as “one of the most sublime poems this age or nation has produced.”