An MP, Lord Mayor of York, once responsible for a thousand miles of rail lines in England and one of the wealthiest men in the country, George Hudson had a calamitous fall from favour, accused of fraud (often by people who had approved and benefited from his actions) then taking refuge from his creditors in France. A dynamic but flawed character with powerful friends and equally powerful enemies; sometimes rude and abrasive, often drunk, but a great achiever.