Bedfordshire’s greatest son, John Bunyan, the visionary preacher and author, lived from 1628 to 1688. He, and a great number of people and places, come to life in this book which covers the period 1066-1888. Apart from Bunyan, it shows the ordinary people, not merely the lord and the gentleman, but the townsman and yeoman; the struggle to gain a living, the way they expressed themselves in buildings and in recreation, and how they formed religious institutions. From the lighterman bringing produce up the rivers to the navvy building the railway.