William Godwin (1756–1836): Philosopher, journalist and novelist. Godwin was born in Wisbech and grew up in a middle class and fiercely Nonconformist household. He was educated at Hoxton Academy and was a Congregationalist Minister in Suffolk 1778–1782, before resigning his post and moving to London to try and make a living from literary work. His views became increasingly radical, and he embraced atheism and philosophical anarchism. His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) and his novel Caleb Williams (1794) made him well-known as a radical thinker and an important figure in London intellectual and literary life. In 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft, who died later that year; their only child was Mary Godwin, author of Frankenstein (1818). Godwin’s Memoirs (1798) of Mary Wollstonecraft proved intensely controversial as they revealed her unconventional life. Southey was an early enthusiast for An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, which he read shortly after its publication. He met Godwin in London in 1797 and disliked him, though he remained a life-long admirer of Mary Wollstonecraft. Godwin married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont, in 1801 and set up the Juvenile Library in 1805, which proved to be a successful retailer and publisher of children’s literature. Godwin continued to publish plays, novels, history and philosophy, but without the sensational impact of his works of the 1790s. In 1833 his radical reputation had faded sufficiently for him to be given a Government sinecure.