Watch Great British Journeys online: Episode 6 Daniel Defoe

In the early years of the 18th century, Daniel Defoe travelled around the whole British Isles. As a spy, merchant and journalist, he knew the country better than most. He’d even travelled around it on the run from the law. He wrote his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain to inspire his fellow countrymen and women. He saw this island as a land of opportunity, rather than the island of difficulties he created in Robinson Crusoe. Nick follows the first of Defoe’s 17 trips: from London through the mud and marshes of Essex, the storm-battered coast of Suffolk and the commercial heartland of Norfolk. In doing so, Nick tries to uncover why Defoe started with East Anglia. Why was it so important in his day? And what happened to it afterwards? Who was Daniel Defoe? Daniel Defoe (1659 or 61 – 1731) was a pioneering English novelist, the father of modern journalism, a writer who published over 500 works and the author of one of the greatest adventure stories ever written. But with this work he had deeper aims than spinning a good yarn. Daniel Defoe was obsessed with money – the making and losing of it. He thought a guidebook would fill a gap in the market, and make him rich. That’s probably why he wrote the Tour anonymously. He paints an incredible picture of Britain, but hides the person who wrote them. By coming across as a well traveled entrepeneur, Defoe concealed his own notoriety as the 18th century equivalent of Del-Boy.

click here to see where to watch or .