James Silk Buckingham (1786–1855) was a writer who travelled extensively and published accounts of his adventures in places such as India, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine. He first went to sea as a boy, and spent a period as a Spanish prisoner-of-war. He was expelled from India in 1823 for criticising the East India Company and the Bengal government. Back in London, he was a supporter of political, social and military reform, and served as the first MP for Sheffield, from 1832 to 1837. He founded several journals, including The Athenaeum, a weekly London periodical. On retiring from Parliament, he left for North America, where he spent nearly four years, and was highly critical of America's economic dependence on slavery. This autobiography, which remained incomplete at his death, was published in 1855, and shows the range of his interests, his energy, and his desire for social and political reform.