Colin Mackenzie was a nineteenth century literary contributor/hack writer, editor, translator and compiler. Between 1849 and 1851 he was the secretary of Charles Cochrane's 'National Philanthropic Association.' Mackenzie spent his adult life living and working in London, England. His interests were wide ranging and his publications reflected this. They were primarily works of non-fiction, including educational and informative works on chemistry, cookery, medicine, popular science, geography, history, economics and religion, but he also wrote about the 'gentlemen's clubs' of London, a 'parliamentary pocketbook' with a strong reformist leaning in 1832 (the year of the first Reform Act) and, towards the end of his career, a report on the chronic poverty and famine that scarred Britain and en