"Humanity Dick" was one of the most colourful characters of the Regency period. A renowned duellist, and the 'King of Connemara', he preferred to live off the proceeds of smuggling than to charge his tenants rent. After succeeding in passing 'Martin's Law' in 1822, preventing acts of cruelty to horses and cattle, he personally policed the streets of Georgian London arresting perpetrators. He remains the only lawyer ever to have called a donkey as witness in a court of law. All animal rights law in the world stems from 'Martin's Law'.

Phillips evokes a vital swathe of history, from the American War of Independence (Martin was in New England when it broke out), the French Revolution (Martin was living in Paris when the Bastille was stormed), the 1798 Irish Rebellion (Wolf Tone had an affair with Martin's wife) to the Regency crisis in England (he was a close friend of the Prince Regent).

This biography brings to life the story of a neglected hero.