Daniel Defoe's life (1660-1731) was packed with incident and drama. Born in the year of the Restoration of the Monarchy after the English Civil War, he remained a Nonconformist throughout his life, actively rebelled against James II, travelled the country as a spy for King William and Queen Mary, worked in Scotland on active behalf of the historic Union of Scotland and England, helped launch the South Sea Company, was bankrupted frequently as a businessman, was imprisoned for libel and debt, and died a pauper. In between, he was one of the most brilliant pamphleteers in the country, and wrote Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Roxana, A Journal of the Plague Year and A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain.