Robert Louis Stevenson was an invalid from childhood, and his whole life, whether in Scotland, England, France, the United States or Australia, was a search for health. But wherever he went in the world, he wrote. He became a teller of tales that made his name, and his initials, famous throughout the Victorian world, and his verses charmed children of all ages. But wherever he went, this strange, striking, child-like man carried his Edinburgh hosts with him, and this is the private world John presents for your delight and entertainment as he looks back on Stevenson's life from a Samoan exile.

The outer, public world of the man who was Stevenson is set against the inner, privateworld of the writer known simply as 'RLS'. This dual personality is at the root of Stevenson's appeal and why he continues to be read, and if there are two sides to him, we must bear in mind that this was the man who wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. But he also wrote Treasure Island, one of the world's best-loved books. His was a most complicated and contradictory psyche, but it makes RLS one of the most interesting commentators on life ever to walk across a stage.