The Iron Tsar: The Life and Times of John Hughes

In 1870, having worked his way up from humble beginnings in South Wales, John Hughes although only semi-literate, was a successful inventor, wealthy industrialist and family man living in London. At the age of 55 he decided to leave everything behind and move to the desolate Ukrainian Steppe, then part of Tsarist Russia, to set up a modern iron and steel works. Having negotiated a contract with the Russian government and raised the capital in England to finance the new enterprise, he set sa...