Devonshire's Own

Book excerpt: Eighth-century martyr St Boniface, tennis player and TV presenter Sue Barker, painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, scholar Sir Thomas Bodley, actor Sir Donald Sinden, Boer War commander Sir Redvers Buller, radio and TV presenter Ed Stewart and round-the-world yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester are among personalities through the ages who have been born in Devon. The county can claim many more who were either born or lived here for a major part of their lives, including Scott of the Antarctica, Agatha Christie, Parson Jack Russell (of terrier fame) and Wayne Sleep. The Elizabethan explorers Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were all Devonians, as were party leaders Michael Foot and David Owen. This book, by renowned local author John Van der Kiste, features mini-biographies of all these and many more.