Patrick of Ireland: The Boy Who Forgave strips back the story to what we really know about the late Roman figure Patricius. Kidnapped by Irish raiders as a teenager (“kidnapped by pirates is good,” to misquote The Princess Bride), Patrick spent several years as a slave before escaping back to Britain – and suffering a shipwreck en route. 

 

As if that was not enough adventure for one lifetime, Patrick was then called back to Ireland in a dream, this time not as a slave, but as a missionary. But getting back to Ireland would prove no more straightforward than escaping from it.