The Air Loom Gang by Mike Jay

The Air Loom Gang is a strange and compelling tale, blending the history of madness in England with the social upheaval leading up to the French Revolution. Author Mike Jay also traces threads from the "Air Loom" of his subject, James Tilly Matthews, forward and backward in time, concluding with a look at its descendants as spun from the imaginations of more recent madmen. But the story's real power lies in the personality of Matthews, himself, a madman who was half right; a husband who was much loved, and a patient with more popular appeal than the doctor who used him to achieve fame. The book is a unique piece of social history: part biography of a remarkable human being and part detective story.