Such is the global phenomenon that is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, it’s hard to remember that until Ron Chernow’s effortlessly readable 800-word biography of the man himself hit the shelves in 2004, Alexander Hamilton was the USA’s forgotten Founding Father. But Miranda’s dazzling creation – which let me say from the get-go lives up to every ounce of its hype and then some – doesn’t just eulogise the architect of the US Constitution, by paralleling his life with that of his nemesis, the equally neglected Aaron Burr, it provides a snapshot of the birth of a nation while lauding the value of immigrants who, when there’s dirty work needs doing, as the musical puts it, “get the job done.”

Austin Scott as Alexander Hamilton. Photo © Joan Marcus

Alexander Hamilton was just such an immigrant. Born out of wedlock on a Caribbean island, by a combination of domestic tragedy and good fortune, he found himself shipped off and educated in the American colonies. Attached as aide to George Washington for much of the Revolutionary War, he went on to become his fledgling country’s first treasury...