Educated at the Royal Caledonian Orphan Asylum in London, where he was raised after his mother's death, Thomson later studied to be an army schoolmaster at the Royal Military Academy at Chelsea. In 1851, he was sent to Ireland where he met Charles Bradlaugh who would later promote Thomson's literary career. In 1862, he left the army and moved to London where he began to publish essays and poems in Bradlaugh's National Reformer. Over time, Thomson became a chronic alcoholic and suffered from extreme depression. His admiration for Shelley and Novalis led to his adopting the pseudonym Byssche Vanolis (B.V.). In 1874, he published his best-known work, The City of Dreadful Night, which expressed his horror of urban dehumanization. In 1880, this was collected with other poems and re-published, receiving critical acclaim. |
Chrysoma Associates Limited
