Which Englishman, whose writings were influential in American politics, was elected as a deputy to the French parliament, and once was due to be guillotined but escaped death because the jailer mistakenly put the chalk cross to mark him for execution on the inside, not the outside, of the cell door ? He also built a bridge of his own design in the middle of a field in London just to show how it would work

That would have to be none other than Thomas Paine

The town of Thetford discussed putting up a statue in memory of their son. This was within the last thirty or forty years. The town's mayor objected saying that he would only accept it if the statue's base had " Convicted traitor" carved under Tom Paine's name and dates. It was erected and ,no, those words did not appear. Some Norfolk people must have long memories