Historian and author Anne Fletcher talks about her debut book ‘From the Mill to Monte Carlo’.
The story is about Joseph Hobson Jagger who, as a child, worked in the mills of Victorian Bradford but went on to “break the bank” at Monte Carlo in 1880. Writer Anne Fletcher, his great-great-great niece will talk about her search for her ancestor’s story and how newly discovered sources helped her prevent his extraordinary life from being lost to history. She will reveal not only why Jagger went to Monte Carlo, but why his experience of the industrial revolution gave him the means to defeat the casino and return home a millionaire.
So little evidence survives of this extraordinary tale of rags to riches resulting in Joseph’s tale being eclipsed by more famous winners so that not only his achievement, but also his very existence has been doubted.
This will be the perfect event for anyone interested in a good story, a family history and a how a factory lad from Yorkshire made his mark on history.