J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

Born on the Isle of Arran in 1856, John Mackinnon Robertson became a journalist and went on to build an unusually wide-ranging career as a writer, editor, and speaker. He was closely involved with the rationalist and secularist movements, and his work often challenged accepted religious beliefs in direct, accessible prose.

Robertson wrote on an impressive range of subjects, including freethought, economics, history, ethics, and literary criticism. He was known for his energy and productivity, publishing many books and articles over the course of his life, and he became particularly associated with arguments about the historical origins of Christianity.

He was also active in public life, serving as Liberal MP for Tyneside from 1906 to 1918. That mix of scholarship, journalism, and politics helped make him a distinctive voice of late Victorian and early twentieth-century debate, and his books still interest readers drawn to bold, questioning minds.