The Nearly Man is the true, yet almost unbelievable, story of one man's
incredible life, beginning in rural Scotland in the reign of Queen
Victoria, and ending on the west coast of Canada in the 1970s. In one of
the 20th century's great untold stories we travel with Francis Metcalfe
on an amazing journey from the great estates of Scotland to the
battlefields of Flanders, and the trenches of the Somme. His
associations with the soon-to-be famous and his brushes with death were
followed by his heroics in the ice fields of Arctic Russia, wasted years
in post-war London, and a narrow escape from being murdered by Sinn Féin
in Ireland. After a spell in prison for fraud, Metcalfe became a
fugitive from Scottish Law as he engineered a daring escape to France,
while the attention of the police was diverted. After hiding in Paris
during the 1920s, among the 'Lost Generation' of writers, Metcalfe was
arrested at gunpoint and thrown in France's most notorious jail. In his
own words, Metcalfe tells the astounding story of his flight from
justice, his subsequent trial, imprisonment, followed by release, his
second escape from the police, his capture and his decision to start a
new life in Canada. . . . only to become embroiled in Communist riots,
the hardship of the depression, the infamous 'Ottawa Trek', and the
impending war. The Nearly Man tells the story of one man's adventures
through some of the last century's lesser- known conflicts, and his
encounters with the famous thinkers, writers and soldiers of his time.
But it also shows how his exploits impacted the people around him.
Francis Metcalfe almost became one of Britain's notable war heroes,
poets, writers, adventurers, businessmen and criminals. If Metcalfe had
succeeded, he would doubtless be immortalised in history. Instead, his
incredible adventures through some of history's forgotten events had
become lost in time, until his story was painstakingly unearthed for
this book.
