A few days after this Englishman appeared, Defoe reported to Oxford that Steele was expected to move in Parliament that the Duke be called over ; ;

It has also been argued that A Modest Proposal was, at least in part, a response to the 1728 essay The Generous Projector or, A Friendly Proposal to Prevent Murder and Other Enormous Abuses, By Erecting an Hospital for Foundlings and Bastard Children by Swift's rival Daniel Defoe.

In 1667, when Defoe was probably about seven years old, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and attacked Chatham.

William III was crowned in 1688, and Defoe immediately became one of his close allies and a secret agent.

In 1692, Defoe was arrested for debts of £ 700 ( and his civets were seized ), though his total debts may have amounted to £ 17, 000 His laments were loud and he always defended unfortunate debtors but there is evidence that his financial dealings were not always honest.

By 1695 he was back in England, now formally using the name " Defoe ", and serving as a " commissioner of the glass duty ", responsible for collecting taxes on bottles.

Though it was published anonymously, the true authorship was quickly discovered and Defoe was arrested.

After a trial at the Old Bailey in front of the notoriously sadistic judge Salathiel Lovell, Defoe was found guilty.

Defoe was amazed that a man as gifted as Harley left vital state papers lying in the open, and warned that he was almost inviting an unscrupulous clerk to commit treason ; his warnings were fully justified by the William Gregg affair.

When Harley was ousted from the ministry in 1708 Defoe continued writing it to support Godolphin, then again to support Harley and the Tories in the Tory ministry of 1710 to 1714.

The book was not authored anonymously and cites Defoe as twice taking credit for being its author.

Defoe being a Presbyterian who had suffered in England for his convictions, was accepted as an adviser to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and committees of the Parliament of Scotland.

Defoe made no attempt to explain why the same Parliament of Scotland which was so vehement for its independence from 1703 to 1705 became so supine in 1706.

When Defoe visited in the mid 1720s, he claimed that the hostility towards his party was, " because they were English and because of the Union, which they were almost universally exclaimed against ".

Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and since Defoe was a mercer in the area at the time, Defoe may have met Pitman and learned of his experiences as a castaway.

Jonathan Swift was a strong advocate for licensing, and Daniel Defoe wrote on 8 November 1705 that with the absence of licensing, " One Man Studies Seven Year, to bring a finish'd Peice into the World, and a Pyrate Printer, Reprints his Copy immediately, and Sells it for a quarter of the Price ... these things call for an Act of Parliament ".

Although both bills failed, they led to media pressure that was exacerbated by both Defoe and How.

This was followed by another review by Defoe on 6 December, in which he even went so far as to provide a draft text for the bill.

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719.

It is possible that Defoe was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, an earlier novel also set on a desert island.

Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and that Defoe himself was a mercer in the area at the time, Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learned of his experiences first-hand, or possibly through submission of a draft.

In 1701 Defoe, flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality, presented the Legion's Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer, Robert Harley.

Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods and wine.

Defoe began his campaign in The Review and other pamphlets aimed at English opinion, claiming that it would end the threat from the north, gaining for the Treasury an " inexhaustible treasury of men ", a valuable new market increasing the power of England.

If he didn't meet Pitman, Severin points out that Defoe, upon submitting even a draft of a novel about a castaway to his publisher, would undoubtedly have learned about Pitman's book published by his father, especially since the interesting castaway had previously lodged with them at their former premises.

Defoe is known to have used at least 198 pen names.

* Daniel Defoe fiction at The Literature Network

* Life of Daniel Defoe at luminarium. org

" Crusoe " may have been taken from Timothy Cruso, a classmate of Defoe's who had written guide books, including God the Guide of Youth ( 1695 ), before dying at an early age – just eight years before Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe.

* Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 18px-text and audio at Ciff Ciaff

Daniel Defoe enlivens this account of the Waveney's Broads course: The River Waveney is a considerable river, and of a deep and full channel, navigable for large barges as high as Beccles ; it runs for a course of about fifty miles, between the two counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, as a boundary to both ; and pushing on, tho ' with a gentle stream, towards the sea, no one would doubt, but, that when they see the river growing broader and deeper, and going directly towards the sea, even to the edge of the beach ; that is to say, within a mile of the main ocean ; no stranger, I say, but would expect to see its entrance into the sea at that place, and a noble harbour for ships at the mouth of it ; when on a sudden, the land rising high by the sea-side, crosses the head of the river, like a dam, checks the whole course of it, and it returns, bending its course west, for two miles, or thereabouts ; and then turning north, thro ' another long course of meadows ( joining to those just now mention'd ) seeks out the River Yare, that it may join its water with hers, and find their way to the sea together.

The castle at Barnard Castle William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hilaire Belloc, Bill Bryson and the artist J M W Turner have also visited the town.

Some think it may have been built by John Defoe ( or DeVoet ), a Tory who was imprisoned in 1776, escaped, fought on the side of the British and Hessian forces at the Battle of Bennington, was captured, escaped again, and settled in Canada.

Defoe in fact did little except at the launch of the publication, intended as an essay-sheet rather than a newspaper.

Daniel Defoe stayed in Aylsham in 1732 and enjoyed a meal at the Black Boys Inn.

According to Jeremy Butterfield, " The first person we know of who made usage refer to language was Daniel Defoe, at the end of the seventeenth century ".

His harshest critic was Augustus Moore, who wrote " God help English literature when English people lay aside their Waverley novels, and the works of Defoe, Swift, Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and even Charles Reade for the penny dreadfuls of Mr Haggard "; adding, " The man who could write ' he spoke to She ' can have no ear at all ".

Daniel Defoe visited Bradford in the early 18th century and commented: " They told me at Bradford on Avon that it was no extra-ordinary thing to have clothiers in that county worth £ 10, 000 to £ 40, 000 per man " ( equivalent to £ 1. 3M to £ 5. 3M in 2007 ).

Defoe gives an eye-witness account of a lead miner's family and of the miner himself at work.

* The London Fictions website looks at commanding London novels from Defoe to the present day

A move to Tottenham in 2004 soon followed, and Defoe also spent a year at Portsmouth after he was deemed surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane, but he returned to Tottenham in the January 2009 transfer window.

Defoe made his return debut on 11 January 2009 in a Premier League game against Wigan, scoring his first goal against former club Portsmouth at White Hart Lane on 18 January 2009.

Defoe scored five goals at White Hart Lane in a 9 – 1 thrashing of Wigan Athletic on 22 November 2009.

In pre-season, Defoe scored two goals, one coming in a 3 – 0 win against Orlando Pirates on 23 July, and the other in a 2 – 1 win against Athletic Bilbao at White Hart Lane on 6 August.