On a cold November night 185 years ago, hindered but undeterred by a relentless, driving rain, the Chartist John Frost led thousands of men down from the Welsh valleys towards the Westgate hotel in what would later be known as the Newport Rising. The resulting trial for treason, which took place in Monmouth, led to his death sentence, later amended to transportation and fifteen years in Van Diemen’s land, including a period of hard labour.

“Some Hidden Thunder” tells Frost’s story, from his birth in a dockside public house to his radicalization in London, from the years as Newport’s mayor and national Chartist leader to life as a convict. It also narrates the journey Frost made as a conditionally-discharged convict in 1855 to San Francisco then across the wild west to New York, lecturing on the horrors of convict life. Finally pardoned by Victoria in 1856, he returned to the UK and a hero’s welcome, in London and Newport, but died a forgotten recluse in Bristol aged 93.

Author and former head of Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls Brenda Despontin said: “ I had wanted to write Frost’s story for a long time. My interest began whilst I lived in The Old Gaol, Monmouth during my years as Headmistress at the girls’ school. To my shame, at that time, I knew very little about the gaol’s most famous resident, and began to research his life and his odyssey, discovering that many of those who followed Frost to the Westgate hailed from the same impoverished valley villages where my ancestors had once lived.

“As an old man, Frost desperately wished to record his life story, but poor eyesight prevented him from doing so. He spent his last decades living with his spinster daughter Anne, and in “Some Hidden Thunder” I give her the task of narrating her father's tale, drawing on his memories, and aided by his many letters, journals and contemporary newspaper reports. I was interested not just in the social history, but in the impact Frost’s actions had on the family he left behind, and this more personal side to his story was possible to explore through Anne’s eyes.

“Much of what the book reveals is based on research and fact, but it is “historical fiction” and at times I needed to employ a “plausible creativity”. In my research I could find no references, for example, to the journey taken by Frost across America, though his lecturing there on convict life is on record. It seemed plausible he would visit cities where new industry was booming, and would stay with exiled chartists he would have known before the Westgate.

Brenda added that John Frost challenged tyranny and hypocrisy whether he found it in Westminster, Newport or Port Arthur. I felt his story was worth a new telling”.

Frost lay in an unmarked grave in Horfield cemetery, Bristol, until 1986 when a local historian made a chance discovery. A new headstone was duly commissioned in Welsh slate and unveiled by Neil Kinnock, the then leader of the Labour party. It bears Frost’s words:

A march in Newport at the beginning of November will mark 185 years since the Newport Rising led by John Frost.

On Saturday 2 November, there is a day of talks in St Woolos, at which the author will be manning a stall selling copies.

“Some Hidden Thunder” by Brenda Despontin (ISBN 978-1-83584-027-6) is available now from Amazon (Paperback - App and website, Kindle – website only) or online from Waterstone’s, W H Smith, Blackwell’s or by order from Rossiter’s Books.