John Martin is best known as an English novelist and biographer. He is a best-selling biographer of Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe. Born into an Anglo-Irish, working-class family, he describes his endeavours to make something of his life: as a journalist, businessman and politician. The route was rocky and perilous: he made fortunes and lost them and married for love and romance. He is honest, rueful and amusing about his triumphs and failures.