Fletcher of Madeley

At seven, Jean Guillaume De La Fléchère hears that the devil will take naughty children. Troubled more by guilt than fear, he slips from his cot, kneels, and whispers, “O God, forgive me!”

Margaret Allen begins her portrait of the future John Fletcher in a Swiss castle above Lake Leman, amid Alpine splendour and the searching questions of childhood. That first prayer marks a life shaped by faith—but Fletcher is no sheltered dreamer: he swims into peril, studies with fierce diligence, and wonders whether he can bear the burden of ministry. When friends urge him toward military engineering, another future beckons. What will draw him toward the life he is meant to lead?

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