People forgotten by history - and rightly so.

There have been numerous people throughout history who have made significant contributions towards society’s development. Many of these rightfully gained a place in the history books and are common household names. Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Michaelangelo, and Sir Isaac Newton spring to mind.

There are also, however, numerous individuals who through no fault of their own, failed to get the recognition that they deserved. Who invented the wheel? Surely this person deserves to be immortalised somewhere. What about the person who first decided that it was possible to float craft on water and therefore made sea-travel possible? I would even suggest that the people who first brewed beer and made wine should have received some adulation. History is all the poorer for not having recorded these wonderful and farsighted individuals.

This book deals with nobody like this. All of the people contained within these pages made no significant contribution to the development of the world whatsoever. Included are a chemist, explorers, civil servants, sportsmen, a writer of children’s stories, and entrepreneurs. Some of them were philosophers who provided hints about how to live life, some were poets in their spare time, and some simply felt that life’s mysteries needed further study. Their common thread is that they managed to live eventful, but sometimes tragically short, lives.