When James barricades himself in the house for 25 years, becoming a famous 19th century English hermit, his brother George cannot realise his inheritance and tries to have James certified as a lunatic and removed. But is James truly 'mad'?

SYNOPSIS:

A work in its earliest stages of being written - a biography:

Today, James's medical treatment in early childhood in London in 1820 would be considered torture. As a result of this, his personality changes. He is expelled from schools, refuses to get employment and the family move to the country. When his mother dies, he will not release the body for burial for 3 months and he boards himself up in his home, never leaves it for the next 25 years, never washes or cuts his hair and nails and sleeps on ashes. He becomes a noted English hermit and up to 400 people a day come to watch him (Dickens was one). But with James locked up in the house, his siblings cannot realise their inheritance, and the protagonist is James's brother George who tries to have James certified as a lunatic and removed. But is James really mad?

James would now be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic - a cure for which has still not been found. There could still be people like James...