On this day in 1822, Thomas Hughes was born in Uffington, Berkshire, the second of seven sons of John Hughes and Margaret Wilkinson.

During his life, Hughes was a Barrister, an MP - elected as a Liberal in 1865 - and a Judge, but it was as an author that he is most well known. His novel Tom Brown's School Days, is a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby, a well-known British public school, which he attended from the age of eleven. The book was an incredible success and was the the financial making of the publishers, London's Macmillan & Company and brought Thomas Hughes both fame and a small fortune.

Interestingly, much of this income was used to found a settlement in America - Rugby, Tennessee — which was designed as an experiment in utopian living for the younger sons of the English gentry. He envisioned his new community as a place where those who wished could build a strong agricultural community through cooperative enterprise, while maintaining a cultured, Christian lifestyle, free of the rigid class distinctions that prevailed in Britain. He established a school, which he named Arnold School after his headmaster at Rugby, Dr. Thomas Arnold. Unfortunately his vision was not really successful and it fell victim to financial troubles, but Rugby still exists today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with a visitor centre and guided tours. You can even stay in two restored houses from the 1880s.

Today, over 150 years after it was first published, Tom Brown's School Days is still a really gripping story. Read as an unabridged audio book by Hugh Bonneville , all the excitement and drama of Tom's days at Rugby really come to life.


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